May 22: Full Circle

It was roughly three years ago. Myself and current (well, former) Towson Sports Weekly producer, Ryan Dooley, had a long talk. About the television station. About God. About girls. About beer. We had a long walk from a friend’s apartment after the annual WMJF post-gala party to hash out all of the things that weighed on our minds through the course of our freshman year. There were no life-altering epiphanies. No transcendent conclusions. Just a meaningful conversation among friends. But somehow, with three years left in the balance, Ryan knew the discussion didn’t end that night.

We just needed three years to finish it up.

Since April 22, when I first ventured onto the roof of the Media Center with PSmith, I have promised myself to return.  For the last couple weeks Ryan and I have made it a point to head up there in one of the waning nights of our college careers to reflect on our time at Towson. Tonight was that night.

After helping me shoot a stand-up (for the third time), which I used to finish up my resume tape this afternoon (barring my long-time professor and unofficial career adviser Jenny Atwater doesn’t find something else wrong with it, as she has each time I’ve shown it to her), we planned on meeting up later tonight to take to the roof and rehash the aforementioned topics, but with three more years, and a handful of experiences, under our belts. Well, just as shows shot at student television stations never seem to go off without a hitch (or two, three, four…), our plans were upended relatively quickly. When PSmith and myself went up a month ago, there was no lock on the hatch that leads to the roof. This time a metal padlock with the words ‘Towson State’ inscribed on it kept us from enjoying a couple Blue Moons at the campus’ apex. After surveying the exterior of the Media Center for a secondary route, and Ryan looking up YouTube videos on how to pick padlocks, we decided to move on.

Our route to Plan B took us past the recently planted Tiger statue outside of Stephens Hall (the bronze statue, which features two enormous and realistic Tiger testicles, replaced the paper mache statue that was outside of Cook Library until a few douche bags from the University of Delaware decided to vandalize it after we beat them in Lacrosse last season…typical UD). We ended up atop the Glen Garage, but there was a limited view of the campus. We headed to the Towsontown Garage, but there were surveillance cameras everywhere.

We drove into Towson, to a garage in the hub of the town. The top floor was locked, but we hung out there for a little while. You could basically see the entire campus, but we were both a bit uneasy by the endless rows of untouched, unmarked cop cars on the top few floors. It was like that scene from ‘I, Robot‘ with the factory full of those deadly robots that Will Smith’s character eventually cabbage-patched to death. Except they were cars. Actually, the only similarity between the scene and the garage was the fact that there were a bunch of white machines in one condensed area. I actually have no clue what happened in the movie, I never saw it. So, um, we left.

Our next spot was our last. We stood atop the Union Garage for a solid hour and a half. Because the of the security cameras we ditched the Blue Moons. Instead, much like our talk three years earlier, we tossed around a number of topics. Our role in the development of WMJF. Our promise to donate $100 or more each year to the station’s fund. And our futures in the television industry. Our past girlfriends. The impact they’ve had on us. And our outlook on those we’ll have in the future. Leaving college. How making such a smooth adjustment from high school to college has eased our worries about making the jump from college to career. Where we will end up in the next year. God. Church. Beer. The list goes on.

The plan went a bit awry. There would have been a greater sense of symbolism had we been able to meet up atop the building we collectively spent a prime amount of our college lives in. But that was secondary to the talk itself. It was evident each of us has grown in a number of ways through our years at Towson. We were prepared to take on the next three years of our lives during that late-Spring walk in 2004. And from the sounds of it, we’re ready for the same challenge once again.

Sidenote: I’m glad to see the Boston Celtics get what they played for this past NBA season: not a thing. Danny Ainge, Doc Rivers and company notoriously tanked this season. Paul Pierce sat with an injury, or whenever it was close in the 4th quarter, as Ainge was taking Kevin Durant’s mom out for dinner and miniature golf. It was a complete embarrassment. They assumed they would land a top-2 pick in tonight’s NBA Draft Lottery, and thus end up with Greg Oden or Kevin Durant. They ended up at No. 5. Glorious. Oh, and Portland and Seattle are going to be sick next year. Especially if Stern lets them transfer over to the Eastern Conference.

Go Cavs.