When I returned to Bennington after 5yrs, 10yrs, it was eerie. I felt as if my after-college life already had a million adventures, yet while visiting I was instantly snapped back into a youthful past, before all those experiences. A past that felt so distant I had almost forgotten it, but when I set foot on campus it returned and fit like a tailored suit.
But when I visited after 20, 25 years… the town and the campus and the faces had changed so very much, I often felt as if I was looking through a translucent sheet, like tracing paper, squinting and struggling to discern memories… occasionally recognizing a scent or a feeling, but mostly having trouble seeing clearly at all. Looking at the current students felt paradoxical, “who are these strange children on a college campus?” I remember well I did not feel like a child at all when I was one of them.
Visiting this year on Reunion Weekend for my 30th, I was able to find people who overlapped my time, and we could cluster and help each other to summon the ghosts from our memories. I would try to have others help me to recall my own favorite moments, but of course we each had different take-aways from our years at this wonderful place. Some people’s memories gave me a different perspective from their past, in a way that not only helped me to recall freshly my own treasured memories, but even to gain new pieces of this beautiful lost puzzle.
It was great. Sometimes melancholy, sometimes wonderful. But great no matter what.
