In loving memory of Patrick Woehnker
As most of you have probably heard, early Sunday morning Patrick Woehnker passed away after a fall from the top of Goodrich.
August 18th, 2007 the Freshman Class of Wabash College reported for duty. Since then, I
was fortunate enough to had been given the privilege of getting to know Patrick in a short but memorable 3 months. It was obvious he was a very proud Little Giant and was immediately noted by the subtle smirk he would give you as if there was something he knew that you didn't. But that was how Patrick was, when I look back on it now, I cannot remember a single time he didn't wear that trademarkable smile. It was always the late night when I had an inordinate amount of work left to do, was tired, sick, and ready to give up when he'd walk into the kitchen, stop, and look at me with that smile on his face without saying a word and no matter how hard I tried to hate what I was doing it would always make me laugh.
I think the next memory, and potentially most prevalent, was when we painted the bench as a class. Before we even started he was the first one to call a class meeting, take the initiative, and put together a plan for the bench. I still remember running to Home Depot 2 minutes after it closed with him and begging the clerk to let us in so we could buy paint. He was always on time for Chapel Sing and the first one of us to last longer than 5 minutes. I actually remember being told to stand on the steps and watch him resist messing up. Then when Fraternal Education started and he was the one to volunteer to act as scribe for the class, taking notes as needed and putting in the extra effort for the house. Patrick was definitely fun-loving, outgoing, passionate, and hard-working. He was loyal, respectful, and would have done anything for us.
As I sit here now, I look at the Fraternity picture of our class with him sitting front and
center, sporting that classic smile. It's absurd to think of the impact he has had on all of us in just 3 months, he will be missed. But as President White said, we have a duty now, a duty to Patrick to continue on what he came here for. I hope this helps us all re-center what we hold dearest to us and gives a little incentive to live each day a little fuller.
RIP Patrick Woehnker October 7th, 1988 - October 28th, 2007
-Forever in our Hearts...
"When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight." ~ Kahlil Gibran
just a chill night in the house and I ended up hanging out with some guys in Northwest that I hadn't really been around much since the beginning of the school year. My parents made it up about 2:00 on Saturday and we hung out at the game for a while and went to A Country -A-Fair for some home cooking. I recommend it to anyone who has not ate their before, its just out on 32 West about 7 miles. After dinner we caught the comedy act which was pretty funny. Kevin Garretty put together a pretty strong act and I think my family enjoyed it. Sunday served, as always, as a homework day. This week shouldn't be too bad but I've got a test at the end of the week that may cramp things a bit.
football game. I was forced to play line against some guys that probably weighed a good 200 pounds more than me - I was pretty sore Thursday. Track has been kicking my butt, I'm pretty sore from the lifting and all, I love the work outs so far, they're pretty good. Today is a Fall Class visit day, it's pretty weird looking at where I was a year ago thinking about coming to Wabash and about 12 other colleges. I can honestly say I do love it here though so I made the right choice.
do my first little bit of procrastinating this week and paid for it last night. My psychology test did go well however, and I feel as though I'm learning how to study for college. Monday night we won our first round tournament game for IM football against the Delts. It was a pretty fun time, we play Sig Chi tonight. Track season officially started yesterday with the first official practice, so far I love some of the new drills and work-outs I've been running, its been a good variety. I went to a biology seminar yesterday about a guy who started an oil drilling business in Ecuador and was talking about how biologists and engineers were working together to be environmentally friendly. It was pretty interesting to see the vast array of places a degree can take you.
friends from high school. Friday night was a blast, one of my friends goes to Saint Mary's and the other Notre Dame so the girl came over and we went around to the dorm room parties and hung out there. Before we went to ND though, we ran around Saint Mary's and caused a little bit of havoc... just for fun of course. It was a nice break to be at a party where the ratio was in favor of females. The party itself was a lot of fun and I met a lot of girls who were very friendly and nice. 
1 to see our float cracked in half and laying on the front lawn. Apparently, the 20' depiction of Wally "dropping a deuce" in a Quaker Oats can needed more support in his legs than we gave him. The chant did not go so well either but we did place 5th with the banner. Now that I can look back on it, I can honestly say it will probably be a very memorable time of my four years here. Although I got very little sleep and struggled through the week, the memories such as piling every pillow in the tube room on top of Samer whose arms and legs were zip-tied will probably stick with me for a while. I did get to participate in the Queen competition as an escort and thought it was humorous a little boy actually remarked to our queen who was dressed as a disney character, "Jasmine, Hey Jasmine!" (poor kid thought he really was a girl)