Ryan's Journal

You must have been part of this particular class at MIT in this particular fellowship to understand why our post-wedding reunion this weekend was such a rousing success.

But first - we're getting old. Some of us, not even active participants in the wedding ceremony, were already exhausted come 9PM. At 10 I was ready to take a nap in the lobby of the horrendously named 'Hotel@MIT' (which has a tracing of a PCB on every light in the building and imitation PCBs decorating every dresser in every room). By midnight I would have been gone were it not for our venture into the chill of a Boston December.

That we all agreed to do something unspecified without (long) debate or conflict is a stunning transformation in and of itself. I recall a certain trip that ended up being to a certain location in a certain country to the north after much grief and serious discussion, or another certain trip to a certain nation's capital that had other interesting sidebar stories along the same lines, and I was not a participant in either trip. Yet somehow we all managed to troop out into the cold night and make our way to McCormick Hall, wherein we harassed some undergraduates and other visiting alumni.

The world has changed. Maybe it's because we all got bigger and tiny issues like what we're doing have finally reached their appropriate perspective. I bet our reunion in 2052 in ol' Cambridge will be a sight to behold. Big red jackets, wheelchairs, wigs and toupees; we'll sit in McCormick's brown living room and reminisce of years gone by and look forward to Great Things still to come, ever nearer; and we won't care that fantastic sights pass us by, because we'll have learned long ago that it's not what you do, it's who you do it with.

The father of the groom described a toast as a tradition where a blessing is released with words that will keep going until they do their job. So: to MITCBF '02, whether you were here or no - I missed you more than I knew. To deepening friendships over lengthening years and a continuing walk in joy with Jesus.

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