First cut

The summer between my freshman and sophomore years of college, I had the recurring nightmare that I would be cut from the marching band.  I hadn't marched a show on the field my entire first season, and I wasn't sure which would be worse - knowing I wouldn't be performing all season, or failing the Challenges for every show.

I practiced playing, and tried to work on marching, but I didn't know anybody in South Bend who could help me.  I felt like I was on my own.  Brian was encouraging.  Dear Brother #1 was... not.

Discovering Space History

A few posts ago, I wrote about COMM 114, and how, when I researched my speeches, I discovered the world of space history: biographies, autobiographies, and so on and so forth.  I didn't stop reading when I had what I needed to present.  Even after my speeches were over, I looked through the stacks of HSSE to look for more, and when I returned to South Bend for the summer, I checked out the offerings at the St. Joseph County public library.

I had many reasons for studying space history.  Foremost on my mind was the common expression from George Santayana, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."  I made a promise to Challenger, that I would do what was within my power to prevent another tragedy.  If I'm going to do that, I have to understand where we came from.

Wisdom teeth

I must have seen the dentist when I went home for spring break.  Since I didn't have an internship or cooperative education job, I went back to live with my parents, sister, and brothers again for the summer.  As my second semester at Purdue wound down, my parents were arranging for me to have my wisdom teeth removed.