End of One, Beginning of Another (part 17)

To be alone, but not lonely. A happy state of affairs, but probably not destined to be everyone's state. For a while, though, it had been mine. 

I'd been alone quite a bit, but was suddenly plunged into a large house chock full of college girls. I just loved this! There was such a friendly mixture of shyness, quirkiness, warmth and approachability that you'd have to be a Dolt not to find friends. 

     https://www.flickr.com/photos/neilwillsey/5018139306/
Just writing about it brings their young faces swiftly back to me - the girl named Karen whose idol was Karen Carpenter; and Mary, the brilliant scholar in her mid twenties with so much knowledge that we didn't need an Encyclopedia ('Just ask Mary!' we would shout); Sally, the sweetest roommate ever who became like a sister; the tall blond named Kaaren who was beautiful and funny all at once; and so many more. Friends. A person never had a chance to be lonely, not at Coed Cottage.

 I had brought my guitar, of course, and the girls took to wandering down the hall to listen to me play, or sing, or just tune the thing. Sometimes the room got crowded. One day some of the Christian leaders on campus came over to ask me about this music someone had told them about. 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/stevewall/332832383/

So I played for them and showed them something I had written. "Hey. Could you maybe come and sing for our campus Christmas party? Three songs?" 

I stared at them. "Well, how big will this party be? Like, a Bible study size?"

"Oh, a little bigger than that. It'll be great!"

Hmm. It'll be great. It felt sort of frightening, just then. I didn't know any of those people yet! But even with being scared, I knew Someone wonderful would do this thing with me. 

I wouldn't be alone up there.


See you along the way!
the SconeLady



photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/neilwillsey/5018139306/">n_willsey</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/">cc</a>

photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevewall/332832383/">Steve took it</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/">cc</a>