18 - The Michigan Daily - Friday, April 14, 2000

A different trip begins as 4fe moves on


here's a reason you sleep
through the transition from
drunk to hungover. It hurts.
You've probably done it before. Now
imagine that you're
making that transitionL
in a coach-class seat
at 7:30 in the morn- V
ing. It's snowing in
April, and your plane
has paused on the
runway for a coat of
deicing fluid. The RICK
pilot is telling you, FREEMAN
for some reason, what Freeman
the fluid smells like, of the Press
and the thought of
honey-scented deicer is more than
your stomach can handle on this par-
ticular Sunday morning. So you lock
yourself in the forward lavatory, and
heave away.
"Ding!" Welcome aboard. This is
the real world - a rough transition
from a state of bliss to a sober, seri-
ous reality.

I spent last weekend searching for a
new home, in a town Id never before
seen. Don't get me wrong - it's a
great place. I'm even lucky enough to
have some of my best friends in the
world as neighbors (just around the
corner.) But if I thought my trip from
new home to old was tough on a 757,
the return trip - for keeps - will be
even rougher.
I'm leaving a place that has shaped
who I am. I'm not the same person I
was when I came here. I found
friends, a career and things I never
even knew I wanted to find. Now this
idyllic world of greasy food, cheap
beer and 35,000 people in my age
demographic is slipping into my
memory. What was once everyday life
is about to become a story told and
re-told.
Life is going on.
Whenever I come back into the
Daily, I feel out of place now. I'm a
ghost here. People don't notice my
presence unless they want to. Used to

i®

be, I walked in, and people were ask-
ing things of me before I had my coat
off.
Now, I can watch the early-evening
hubbub as a fly on the wall. It's sad,
in a way. I used to matter here.
Everything we used to do was driven
by a pure desire to produce the best
journalism we could and by the grand
passions of youth. And when I say
that, I don't just mean everything we
did in here. We took it home with us
during the few hours we spent at
home. We socialized together. Friends
who knew us before the Daily became
frustrated. We struggled to tell them
stories, because they didn't know the
characters, didn't know a cutline from
a deadline.
We had our lives consumed by an
old brick building we came to love.
Now, we miss it. We call ourselves
Daily Ghosts. But we don't haunt this
place so much as it haunts us. We
know that our lives will never again
be this way. In some ways, they might
be better, but in many they will not.
Never again will we be so filled with
such a sense of meaning, of doing
something that really mattered that we
are willing to sacrifice our friends,
credit rating, health, money and social
lives for something.
John Updike once wrote that Ted
Williams radiated the hard blue glow
of high purpose. The Kid had nothing
on this place. The light bulb in the
tower of the Daily (Go ahead and
look sometime) is just a symbol of it.
Does
Food,
Weight,
Or Exercise
CONTROL
Your Life???
STARTING WEDNESDAY,
MAY 3RD
"EATING ISSUES
AND BODY IMAGE
THERAPY GROUP"
OPEN ENROLLMENT THROUGH MAY 10
4:15-5:45 P.M.
SHERI SZUcH, PHD 741-8584
SUZANNE BATES, PHD 668-0077
CALL FOR PRE GROUP INTERVIEW

Even in the past few months of my
exile from here, whenever I get within
sight of Maynard Street, I make sure
to look for the green bulb glinting
behind the windowpanes. One of my
next glimpses will be my last. My
new life begins 535 miles away - too
far to see, but not too far to remem-
ber.
As soon as I made it home from
Metro, I curled up and slept for seven
hours. When I awoke, Vijay Singh had
won the Masters, the sun was starting
to disappear behind the trees on the
west side of town, and best of all, I
was back in Ann Arbor.
My journey of headaches and heav-
ing seemed like a distant nightmare.
But dimly, I was aware: I'm on bor-
rowed time here. My time as a ghost
is forever, but my time as an Ann
Arbor resident (it even says so on my
drivers' license now) is measured in
days. You can count them on one hand
right now.
Soon, sooner than I care to, I begin
the awkward coupling of my new life
to my old one. It won't be smooth, it
won't be fun, it might even require
some de-icing.
But my last trip, though it cost me
my lunch and some dignity, was
worth it. This one might be too. It just
won't be the same.
- This is Rick Freemans
final column for the Daily. He would
like to point out that this might just
have been the best time of his life. E-
mail him at rickp eeaumich.edi.

TOURNAMENT
Kepler Invitational
Spartan Invitational

WHEN
Today and tomorrowColumbus

April 29 and 30:

Big Ten Championship May 5-7

East Lansing
West Lafayette
Victoria,Texas

*NCAA Regional

May 18-20

*NCAA Championship May 3 ,-June 2
* if M' qualifies
Women's golf upcoming schedule:
TOURNAMENT WHEN
Hawkeye Invitational Tomorrow and Sun.I
Big Ten Championship April 28-30I
S}
*NCAA East Regional May 11-13 C
*NCAA Championship May 24-27 S
* iM' qualifies

Opelka, Ala


Iowa City

Tee times
Men's golf upcoming schedule:

Madison
olumbus
un River, Ore.


Men's track upcoming schedule:
When Tournament
Location

April 22
Durham, N.C.
April 27-29
Columbus
Sat,Mab6
Sun., May 7
Columbus
Fri-Sat., May 12-13
Ann Arbor
Fri-Sun., May 19-21
Iowa City
May 3 -June 3
Durham, N.C.

Duke Invitational
Ohio State Quadrangular
Toledo Invitational
Jesse Owens Classic
Len Paddock Invitational
Big Ten Championships
NCAA Championships

k

Women's track upcoming schedule:
When Tournament
Location
April 22 Ohio State Qua
Columbus
April 28 and 29 Drake relays
Des Moines, Iowa
May 5 Cardinal Twiligi
Palo Alto, Calif.
May 6 Toledo Invitatio
Toledo, Ohio
May 7 Jesse Owens Cl
Columbus
May 12 and 13 Len Paddock In
Ann Arbor
May 19-21 - Big Ten Champi
Iowa City

drangular
ht
nal
assic
vitational
ionships
Onships

May 31-June 3
Durham, N.C.

NCAA Champi

MARnJURnI MARSHALL/LDily
Michigan shot putter Jason Hoyner and the Michigan track
team have six more meets to prepare for Big Tens.

(t


r r


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