Picture a Saturday night, some Longwood alumni friends all getting together (and caught in the rain!) over beer, greasy food and baseball.  Sounds perfect, right?

We all met up in DC to see a Nationals  baseball game.  Before the game, we had to get a little pre-game socializing in; the Longwood alumni met at the Fairgrounds right next to the stadium.  I had planned to meet up with some friends that graduated in my major, THERAPEUTIC RECREATION and ran into a guy who graduated in my class that remembered me from 11 years ago.  I also saw staff member who remembered me; I always saw Bill Fiege hanging around Lancer gym, where most of the classes required for my major were held, as he was an athletic director from 2002-’03, and alumni director from’99-02.  He is also a graduate of the great school LONGWOOD December 1994.

Standing in line to get into the game,  a random friend from Hampden Sydney College was there with his family (a total coincidence, but who attended InterVarsity meetings while at Longwood with me on a weekly basis).  I also met new alumni that I hadn’t come across before, a girl that had graduated in my husband’s class, Dec ’99- walking spring of 2000.  (My husband always corrects me when I say he graduated in 2000)

Why go to a Longwood alumni event?  It’s really great connecting with other people that you went to school with, meeting different ages all one thing in common, a love for Longwood.  I met many graduates at the social at the bullpen at Nationals Park.  There are so many people from Longwood of all different ages at the alumni gatherings.  There were a lot of younger graduates, many graduates of all ages actually.  I met a woman that attended Longwood when it was an all female teaching school, but many more alumni that had just graduated, and I was actually surprised to see students that had graduated when I attended.  You can go to the alumni events and mix with other ages to talk to and compare notes, about the present state of the campus, share stories of monumental events that happened to change the school (The Longwood fire particularly comes to mind).  To connect with not only alumni that you know, but to meet new people and form new connections, all because there is one thing you have in common, a love for this school.

I met my husband through the connection of both being Longwood alums; we met years after we had both graduated and found each other on MySpace (back when it was still cool).  Matt was searching for alumni and saw that we had also gone to the same high school, West Springfield High School.  He noticed my love for coffee, and our mutual love for Longwood.  We went to a coffee shop, and the rest is history…

FOR IT’S 1, 2, 3 STRIKES, YOU’RE OUT, AT THE OLD BALL GAME!

STRIKE 1: METRO; awful experience, first we drove to the Springfield/Franconia station, and the track was down between where we needed to get to the Nats station.  We needed to drive to the Pentagon City metro station- which was fine.  The iffy part happened when we had to switch trains, there were so many people! Getting home was the worst, the metro trains were packed full of people, and we had to transfer trains by going up a staircase, and around to the next train.  This definitely confused me, a young 35 year old girl with a traumatic brain injury, everybody around me was frantic (and quickly!) walking around me, luckily I had Matt Karst to think fast and show me where to go.

STRIKE 2: RAIN; although the Longwood University Alumni were the few in the Fairgrounds under the shelter of a outdoor roof.

NO STRIKE 3; WASHINGTON NATIONALS WON THE GAME!

The whole social aspect of the day was pretty fulfilling, it all happened with good friends one summer night at a Nationals game.  And it was a Longwood Alumni event, you can’t go wrong!