August 19, 2002 7 a.m. I am startled by the sound of my alarm clock and the fact that August 19, a date that I had circled months ago on my calendar, has indeed arrived.
My first intuition is to pull my alarm clock out of the wall and hide for several more hours underneath my blanket. I begin to fight that war with myself which we all fight from time to time. Is it really going to hurt anything if I miss this one little class? I mean, it’s only the first day, right? No. Parker, you’re too old. Face it: a 22-year-old college senior can’t miss class on the first day. Well, nobody ever said that was an official rule … this is just too confusing. I can’t seem to make up my mind. Oh well. I guess I’ll have to sleep on it for a bit.
7:22 a.m.
Instinctively, there is no alarm this time, I wake up. Come on Parker, what were you thinking? My feet hit the floor hard. Barely giving myself a chance to breathe, I feverishly shower, brush my teeth, get dressed and head out into the world.
7:36 a.m.
Somehow I make it from the driveway of my apartment complex onto South Montgomery Street. Unfortunately, it seems I have met my match. Lost in an endless sea of cars, trucks, minivans and SUVs, I turn the radio up and make myself comfortable.
7:50 a.m.
I finally arrive on campus. Much to my surprise, I even find a parking space that is within a ten-minute walk to my first class.
7:52 a.m.
Calm down … collect yourself, Parker … this is nothing you haven’t done before. Yeah, but this time it just feels different somehow. I slowly step out of my car.
7:52 (and a half) a.m.
Time for a quick look around-check right, check left-yep, Mississippi State is once again abuzz with students. She’s alive and well. The natural order of things has been restored.
I had been a little worried about this particular first day of school. I turned 22 August 5. That is still pretty young; nevertheless, in college years, I’m ancient. More troubling to me than my age was the fact that Aug. 19 marked the beginning of my last year as a student at Mississippi State. The only way for me to attempt to accurately describe just how harsh that reality was for me to swallow was to share my experiences from 7 a.m. to 7:52 (and a half) a.m. on the morning of Aug. 19, 2002.
You may have just read my minute-by-minute account while constantly asking yourself “What point is he trying to make?”. Is this simply a feel-good piece about Parker almost missing his first class? No.
Is he going to satirize the parking and traffic problems on and around campus? No.
Is he just so arrogant that he expects me to be interested in a minute-by-minute account of his first day of school? No.
Like many of you, the morning of my first day of school last week was chaotic. By 7:52 a.m., I had arrived on campus feeling tired and frustrated. But at 7:52 (and a half) a.m., something interesting happened. I got out of my car and realized that I was home again.
And what a remarkable realization it was. Through three full years at Mississippi State, I have had the opportunity to grow as a person. I have been challenged intellectually by my professors. I have spent long hours hunched over textbooks and class notes. Most importantly, I have been exposed to a culture of over sixteen thousand different people.
I can honestly say that I am now more sure than ever before that the experience of human interaction is the most important growing experience that this world has to offer. Despite all her tangible assets, Mississippi State’s greatest gift to society is undoubtedly her faculty, staff, students and graduates.
There is a reason that this institution is so often referred to as “the people’s university.” It’s because we provide a product to this state, this region and this nation that is priceless-our people.
People who are challenged intellectually in seventy-seven different disciplines leave Mississippi State better than when they arrived and offer invaluable services to a society that desparately needs high-quality people. The best things is that as this university improves her students, her students always find a way to improve her.
That is what separates this institution of higher learning from the ordinary. That’s why Mississippi State is the only university that has established a presence in all eighty-two counties of the state of Mississippi. It’s because we are the best at what we do. More importantly, we have a tradition of giving back to the statewide community as well as the nation as a whole.
That tradition is recognized far and wide by all who are familiar with Mississippi State, and it must never perish.
It begins with our student body. We are fortunate to have a student body concerned not merely with gaining a wealth of knowledge from the classroom but giving different ideologies, talents and a stream of cultural diversity back to an institution whose purpose, stated simply, is progress.
In my three years at Mississippi State, I’ve tried my best to offer her all of these things. In return, she has offered me much more than a college education. She has offered me an experience with her people. She has offered me a family. She has offered me a home.