Lakeland Dreams

Greetings, people of the interwebs! We have SO much to discuss!

 

For starters, I moved! I relocated from my home in sunny Saint Cloud, FL, to the quaint college town of Lakeland to live on campus for my last semester of college at Southeastern University. WHY did I decide to move on campus for my very last semester of college after having commuted for the rest of my entire college career, you ask? There are some questions I dare not even ask myself these days, old chap, and THAT is one of them. Suffice it to say that as the semesters of my degree wore on and I progressed from sophomore, to junior, to senior, to fifth-year senior (Don’t judge.), my presence was required on campus more and more, so that by the time my final semester arrived, I was spending considerably more time in Lakeland than in the town of my birth, and it only made sense to live in the Land of Lakes for the end of my college experience to make the completion of my degree that much less stressful.

 

And so I made my move to Lakeland, a last semester senior living in a dorm for the first time. I packed my life up and put it in my sister’s minivan and off to Lakeland we went.

 

 

I’m sure you can tell from the above photo that I’m a very methodical packer, as most Irish-Italians with a touch of feisty Welch in them are. With my blender, my paint set, half my wardrobe, ¾ of my scarf collection, a pair of sunglasses for every day of the month if it were February on a leap year, and a straw fedora that I’m still not completely convinced suits me, I became the newest inhabitant of Suite 107 in the Destino dorm building.

 

I was checked in by an RA (Resident Advisor) and asked a series of questions about myself for the Residence Hall to keep on file, to have as reference in case they ever have to chat me up before confronting me about a rumored drug problem or streaking habit, I assume. The questions were pretty routine, favorite color, candy, soda, and the like. I was answering confidently until the fated question left the mouth of the RA at the computer and made its way to my poor, unsuspecting ears.

 

“Favorite movie?”

 

As any Irish-Italian with a touch of feisty Welch in him or her will tell you, there comes a time in every person’s life where he or she must stand confidently in front of his or her peers and Resident Advisors and say,

 

“My favorite movie is Little Women, starring Wynona Ryder and Susan Sarandon.”

 

 

However, on that August day in Lakeland, Florida, this Louisa May Alcott fan answered simply,

 

“Ummm… Hotel Rwanda?”

 

 

HOTEL RWANDA, ISAAC?!?! Really?! The heart-wrenching drama starring Don Cheadle about the Rwandan Genocide of the early 90s?! Poor form, Isaac. Poor form.

 

What was I supposed to do, just explain with confidence to the RA I had known for less than five minutes that I cry every time Laurie proposes to Jo in the forest and she rejects him? To tell him that sometimes, when I’m frustrated, I say with angst, “FRY the Hummels!!!” even though I’ve never in my life met a person with the last name Hummel? To make a pie chart explicating to him that I’ve seen this movie enough times to know that the grown-up Amy (played by a different actress than the younger Amy, who is played by a pre-Jumanji Kirsten Dunst) wears the dress that Meg almost wears to Sallie Moffat’s coming out ball several years earlier, which was a very thoughtful choice on the part of the costume designer?

 

Perhaps, but I didn’t.

 

And then when he asked for my birthday, I thought, “WHAT IF they ask for your favorite movie so that when it is your birthday they hold a party for you and make everyone watch it?!” If they made all the guys in my dorm watch a movie about African genocide for my birthday, I would never be able to look at myself in the mirror and thoughtfully re-draw my side part again.

 

But it was too late. The deed was done. I would forever be the guy whose favorite movie told the story of the murdering of millions of innocent people in the Rwandan countryside. The Hootoots and the Tootsies would forever have their place at my birth celebrations.

 

It was at this point I decided that in my last semester of college, living in D107 at Southeastern University in Lakeland, FL, I would be who I am, for better or for worse: an Irish-Italian with a touch of feisty Welch whose favorite movie chronicles the lives of four girls growing up in Civil War America, looking for identity and love and Meg’s missing opera glove (which we all know ended up in John Brook’s coat). And this decision made for what would become the best semester of my college career. And THAT is something I will never regret.

 

To be continued.

 

Lakeland Dreaming,

 

Isaac.

 

 

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