Last Week - Tim described one crazy weekend, where 
a friend of his puked in some guy's bathroom.

Here's a question for everyone out there... what 
made you decide to come to Cortland?  What was the 
motivating force behind your decision to come here.  
For some of you, actually a large number of you, it 
was the fact that Cortland is very strong in your major, 
or had your major to begin with.  For others, it's the 
fact that Cortland is a state school, and therefore 
tuition isn't as high as it would be at a private 
college.  And, even though I find it kind of sad, 
some of you came because it was close to home so you 
could get there if things weren't going so well.

I'll tell you right off the bat, Cortland was my first 
choice.  Number one on a list of one.  Early decision 
was my middle name my senior year of high school.  While 
everyone else in my class was struggling with the 
applications and the forms, I was chilling in the back 
laughing at them try to make a choice.

And the thing is, I didn't make it for the "usual" 
reasons.  Actually, I made it for some reasons that 
probably made people decide against coming here.  Call 
me strange, but that's a fact.

I love the weather here.  I love the cold days and the 
snowy times where you have to take out the boots and 
the gloves or you're going to freeze.  I don't know what 
is wrong with me, but for some reason I have always liked 
the cold, snowy weather.  I wanted to go to a school 
where I could be really cold and be happy about it.  
You have to admit, and I sure have come to the right 
place for that.

I also like the fact that Cortland doesn't have a lot 
of people around.  In all seriousness, I can't think of 
a place where, in the first year, that I could have done 
as much activity wise than at Cortland.  Look at me now, 
I do so much more with the student newspaper than I would 
have going to another college.  I've had three radio shows, 
been a part of a student theater production, and helped to 
run the CCSA election last spring.  I cannot come up with 
another college where I could have done so much in my first 
few years here and been happy with it.  That's something 
that you just can't do on a large campus.

Also, my first experience I had here may have played an 
important part.  

The first person I met on campus: the one and only 
President Judson Taylor.

I'm not kidding, it really happened.

I was here for open house, and my parents and I had 
basically been given weird directions to get to the 
Ice Arena.  So, we're driving up by the Miller building, 
totally lost.  As most of you know, there is a map of 
campus right outside of the building, so we stopped to 
take a peek to see if we could get our bearings back.

There was an official looking guy walking out of the 
building, so I decided to stop him and ask him how to 
get down there.  He politely gave us the directions 
(which were very good, by the way)  and added that he 
was headed down there and was running a little late.
I asked him what he did.

The president?

How do you respond to the president of the college 
after asking him directions and having no idea who he 
was five seconds ago?

I have no idea.  I think I passed out or something, 
because I'm missing the rest of that conversation.

Here's the point.  Wouldn't you go to the college 
after having some small talk with the president?  I 
mean, the first person you meet is the president of 
the place?  Of course you do.  It's the nice thing to do.  
You don't want to waste the man's time.

So, now I can blame anything that happens to me here 
at Cortland on the president, right?

Yeah, I wish it was that easy...