Fall 1996... 10 years ago. I was a freshman in college, C-R-A-Z-Y for Jesus, evangelical to the core. I was at a deeply Christian university, and felt like I would never be happier with so many opportunities for learning, spirituality, and service around me. I threw myself completely into it, going on retreats, Bible studies, volunteer service, the whole deal.
Oh, and I was obsessed with crew... no really, I was completely over-the-top. I spent most of my waking (and dreaming!) hours studying everything ever written or said about rowing, being a coxswain, handling a boat, etc etc. I wanted to be the absolute best, to understand every little mechanism, to go to the Olympics.
I loved being on the crew team, though I had never set foot in a boat before the first week of my freshman year. I did that for 4 years straight.
In my spare time I studied and thoroughly loved being an English major (after finally giving up on pre-med), though didn't always do so well in my classes (due to waking up at 4:30 am 6 days a week). I made lots of friends and fell for a couple of guys, but otherwise lived pretty intensely off of my faith, rowing, and English literature.
Those were the things I got out of bed for.
Oh, and if you couldn't tell, I was innocent as hell. Not a single thought of drinking, having sex, or even masturbating. There was just too much else to experience at the time! Plus at the time, those things were associated with being away from God, which was the last thing I wanted. But there were never serious temptations anyway... just didn't interest me.
Looking back, it was a great year for the most part. On the dark side, however, my family had gone to utter shit the summer before I left for college, and I hated having to drive home every weekend from the dorms, to keep my mother company. She also made me call her every day from school. I really resented that whole thing, and acted like a brat every time I had to deal with my mom. Hell, I still do that... guess that's the only thing that hasn't changed for me, since then.
(For the record, I'm pretty much nothing like what I was then. No gung-ho religion, lots of sex and booze
, no crew, not much literature, no service, and way the hell too much schoolwork... and living across the country from my mother. Go figure, I'd like to think I'm more real now, and thus doing better... but sometimes, I really miss that rather ignorant bliss.)