Class Reunions and Animal House

This weekend the Class of 1985 of the WVU School of Medicine – my class – reunited at WVU Homecoming. Graduates from classes before and after ours were here, too, celebrating all the good that grew from our experiences at WVU.

Thirty years have gone by in the blink of an eye. Like an old song said, when I was a child a day seemed like a year. Now a year seems like a day.

Time goes quickly when you are busy living your life.

Reunion weekend is special this year for more reasons than the fact I graduated from WVU’s medical school thirty years ago. It is also my first reunion as a member of the WVU leadership team.

I never would have dreamed this would happen as I sat with my classmates at our graduation.

This experience of catching up with classmates from the class of ’85, with current students, and with graduates of many years, spanning a 50 year era, reminds me how lucky I am to be at WVU.

Greeting new and old friends and their families, some with children now attending WVU’s medical school, made me aware that I was in the middle of the circle of life.

At the homecoming football game this weekend, there was a great clip shown on the stadium scoreboard from the movie Animal House that underscores our commitment to transforming the future.

Like Dan McGinn wrote recently, we need to call successful West Virginia natives home to help us and help our state.

We are developing the culture and the talent to build the state coalition that will change the future. Change the future for all of our citizens and create the foundation to be the model for the rest of the country.

Like Bluto said, it is up to us. I know we can.