Last week was long and brutal.  I didn’t really realize this though until I got through it.  I think that’s because I was just too numb and in some sort of zone to realize how much work I’d done push through to the weekend.  Even with all of that, it was a busy weekend to look forward to.  But after everything that had happened last week, Sunday came and erased everything, brought me to reality, and brought some sort of eerie wake-up call to the campus.

Though I believe that resuming somewhat of a normal routine and continuing with life is a great factor in the healing process, I couldn’t write about anything else even if I’d wanted to.

It’s just odd to be on campus right now.  Classes have started for the week and most schedules have resumed, but most of those affected by the loss of Patrick just aren’t ready to move on quite yet.  We all are finding some comfort in each other, but the thoughts are still there.  When it comes down to it though, I think I’m coming to a greater realization about what’s really important.  I started to understand some when the swim team had its dreaded meeting about the incident on Sunday.  Coach Weitz mentioned how he’d never seen such a strong, supportive community like we have at our college.  Professors are more than understanding and flexible to work around conditions while many others are more than happy to help in any way possible, but even when daily routine begins to pick back up, it should still be our responsibility to put others before ourselves.  It wasn’t until this week that I had seen the bonds that we share here and especially among the team. 

Sunday night, the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity and members of the swimming and diving team stayed out the paint the bench in memory of Patrick.  I think it is one of the most honorable things that we, as a family, could do to show he was a genuine part of Wabash by incorporating his memory within a Wabash tradition.

The middle of this week may be the most difficult, with all the services there are to take place.  Tomorrow, I’m going to the memorial chapel for Patrick and then the team is driving up to Kendallville on Wednesday for the viewing.  It’s hard not to let emotions, misconceptions, reporters, and all the widespread agendas get to me at times.  I’m proud though to know that we are better than that and Wabash isn’t letting anything take away from the real importance of the matter at hand. 

We loved and greatly miss you, Patrick Woehnker.

Posted by Howard Hewitt at 07:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

My first entry in this blogging world may not have the zest or all the interesting details I had hoped for, but at least it is a start.  Of course, it would be polite to introduce myself, but I wondered whether I should at all.  If I told you who I was then it would almost be as if I had set a definition to the person that I am.  That, itself, would kill the purpose of my blogging, which is to portray to you the life of a Wabash student.  So you have my name.  That is all, unless you know me personally.  From here you can decide for yourself who I am and if my Wabash experience is worth your time to read about.  If it is not, I won't be offended.  Besides, I figure that I at least better make it worth my time or else no one is going to be happy.

This past weekend, like almost all weekends, went by too fast.  Friday afternoon we loaded on to the large charter bus for our relay swim meet at Kenyon.  I shouldn’t have even bothered bringing my backpack.  It’s so hard to do any work on a bus.  I don’t know why I ever convinced myself that I would get anything done.  The hotel was extremely nice though, and it’s too bad that we weren’t able to stay any longer.  Even so, I realized how fortunate we were to be well fed and accommodated with such nice sleeping arrangements (this is besides the fact that one of my fellow teammates thought it would be necessary to use his swim bag as a “contact” barrier between him and I in the double).  Those freshmen are just something else.  I won’t say much about the meet though because most of those things should turn up on the Lanelines blog.  I will say that it was a great start to the competitive season for the team.  After about two-and-a-half movies, a few dozen pizza boxes, and more testosterone than a charter bus bathroom can handle, we returned to campus.  It was about eleven o’clock Saturday night and the campus was pretty peaceful.  This was after all the events from Family Day that we had missed.  Few were asleep though.

 Sunday would be my favorite day of the week if it wasn’t followed by Monday.  There is nothing like beautiful weather on the Sabbath and its relaxing afternoons.  It’s all too common though that I use it as a crutch where my unfinished schoolwork takes over.  I find it odd how I can always feel like I'm behind and like I have to catch-up with my work when I'm really not behind at all.  I think it’s because I know that as much as I try to plan out my week, something unexpected will offset everything and leave me in an organized scramble.  Ironic, isn’t it?  I guess you could think of life as an organized scramble too.  I could just throw it in reverse and call it a scrambled plan as well.  If that’s the case I should probably learn to adapt more and plan less.  Or maybe I could just get ahead sometime and forget the whole thing.  As this is my first blog,  I might as well sign-off with some sort of cliché moral:  Get a-head in life before schoolwork takes yours.   

Posted by Philip Towne at 08:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)