[ I guess I'm nontraditional ]

Last night I went to the Nontraditional Student Recognition reception in the UWM Union art gallery. Every year the schools within the university pick an exceptional nontraditional student to represent them. My school, the School of Information Studies (SOIS), did not pick me, but the Office of Adult and Returning Student Services (OARSS) did. As OARSS gets so little recognition within the school (and probably money too), the reception was a low-key affair, but special nonetheless. I brought Melissa, and my parents too. My dad was a big ball of tears most of the time. He and mom are so proud of me. I’m the first one in my family to go to college, and my parents never even finished highschool.

I’m not big on the whole socializing with strangers thing, especially ones that have read all about me on a display at the front of the room. I got to meet the woman SOIS did choose over me, and was immediately intimidated because she’s superwoman (full-time school, full-time work, part-time National Guard). I’d had her in some of my online classes, and could tell that she was an overachiever. The best part though, was that she (and her husband) seemed a little intimidated by me, when I told them that I was a double major. So take that!!

Anyway, it wasn’t something that I was looking forward to (because of my anti-social tendencies), but I actually had a good time. How odd to have someone taking photos of you as you’re trying to have a conversation with people? I kept wondering, “what are these pictures for anyway?”