I Was Happy, Wasn’t I?

A warm and fuzzy post that conjured happy college memories for me too.

I went to Penn too. and i hear you 1000% on the heartbreaks, the nemeses and the blur of fun times. The sad parts seem more pointed bc in our advanced age and maturity we could probably go back and fix them in no time flat. I think its the equation of the value we learned from sad times with the joy of happy times that makes that made it compute as happy. Friendships from my youth have a specific level of tightness, partly bc I relied on those people in sad times as well as happy in a way you dont do as an adult. Well written, Emily. I love you blog.

i think it’s easy to look back and think those days were something really special, because most of us are caught just at the magical age of being adults without really any adult responsibility, beyond not getting put in jail and making it to class.

now? now we get to worry about our kids and try to figure out how to share our lives with another person and maybe throw a job or career into that mix. finding the balance is hard.

(found you through momalom!)

I loved this take on happiness. And I think you’re so right although I’ve never thought about it this way. When we think back on our past, we tend to generalize and think of the overall picture. I know I was unhappy for MUCH of college, but I remember the beautiful days skiing in Vt, the fun parties, the laughs and tend to forget the “drama”. So yes, I also say college was great although really, it wasn’t so much. I’m glad my mind holds onto the good times instead of the bad… it helps us move forward and feel optimistic. It’s probably why we go on to have more and more kids! We forget the pain of child birth, the exhausting first weeks (years/months) and just look at our kids as they are today and think – this is pretty great! Let’s do it again!

My wife and I graduated college over 20 years ago. We went to the same school but I was one year ahead of her.

We had profoundly different college experiences-I look back on it with great memories and more happy times than bad ones. My wife on the other hand doesn’t share my fondness (even though she met me!)and sometimes wishes she had gone to a different school(while still marrying me).

Of course over time you do sometimes lose track of friends you were very close with as both your life and theirs become more busy. But overall I think it was a happy time with small periods of sadness here and there.

Enjoy the weekend and looking forward to hearing how it goes for you.

Love this quote “letting the best of times define the experience and leaving the worst of it behind.” That really says it all and is the way that we should all be living our lives.

I was so sick on that day that I almost had to be hospitalized. I’m sure that going out into the quad in 90 degrees and drinking god knows what someone had handed me didn’t help, but it turned out that I had mono and I spent much of the next two months in bed.

I was not so happy on that day.

Glad you were! You sure look happy! But you mostly look happy. You have that “I’m genuinely happy” smile.

I’m so with EB on this one. And I have to say, in my high school yearbook, one of my Deep, Deep Quotes was from Tennyson, cribbed from the older brother of one of my classmates: “And was the day of my delight/As pure and perfect as I say?” Even at the end of high school, I could feel myself editing out the crummy parts and remembering only the fun things and the good times and the happy days. And there were plenty that didn’t fall in that category.

Ditto Penn. My job required me to speak positively of my experience there. And mostly, that wasn’t hard. But being there as a non-employee reminded me of several things I choose not to remember very often, and that certainly would not have helped recruit new students to attend. But it was a great reunion, even if we never saw each other! Thanks for the awesome column.