The Last Supper

Ah, to be less than a week away from graduating. It is exciting, terrifying, and wonderful all at the same time. One of the many senior events of the final two weeks is the senior dinner, a delicious meal orchestrated by the President and his wife and shared with fellow seniors, professors, and staff alike. As if graduating weren’t nostalgic enough, do all of my professors have to dote on me so? Carol Howard, whom I mentioned in a previous blog as a brunette bombshell and professor of English here at WWC, saw us driving up to the dinner and waited outside of the door so that she could be sure to sit with “her students” at the dinner.

Unfortunately, Gary Hawkins, head of the creative writing department, and David Mycoff, head of the English department, did not plan so well, and we had quickly run out of space at our table, forcing them to find seats elsewhere. Carol and I discussed future plans as well as landmark college experiences over my beef filet and her portobello mushroom. Warren Gaughan, head of the music department, came over to chat, and I invited him to a post-graduation get-together at my house. He just said, “I’m invited? YES!” And I told him all about the two bands that will be performing at the party.

Following dinner, the Warren Wilson College Chorale serenaded us with everything from world music to a Bob Dylan cover. As I sipped my coffee, Mycoff took advantage of a seat vacated by my roommate, Tori, and sat down next to me. I slyly opened with “How’s your semester wrapping up?” as a casual lead in to ask if he had read my thesis yet and, if so, what he had thought of it. I dropped the question, and he told me that my forty pages about AIDS Drama was one of the best theses he has read. As he stood up to leave, he added: “And I don’t just mean out of this year’s work.” I have been on cloud 9 since that conversation and will continue floating until May 16th around 10:00 or so.

RH