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You Can Go Home Again
By Rory J. Thompson (B.F.A. '78)
They say what goes around, comes around. In my case it's been about 25 years since I last wrote for an NYIT publication, but it's nice to be stompin' around the old grounds again.
For anyone who attended the Old Westbury campus in the mid '70s, you might remember my weekly screed in The Campus Slate. I wrote a column back then called "Watchin' the River Flow," a jaundiced take on college life through the eyes of an older-than-most student.
I had made my way to NYIT (back then, we called it New York Tech) via the New School for Social Research (and Nassau Community College; and SUNY Albany; and St. John's University. You might say I was academically challenged). But I found a home here, and plunged into college life with a fervor that I hadn't felt at my previous four institutions.
I joined the Slate by walking into Editor-in-Chief Maryann Bert's office and announcing that I'd like to write a weekly humor column. She asked to see some writing samples, but I didn't have any, never having written a weekly column before. It was either through sheer guts or sheer madness that she agreed to take me on. And a writer was born.
My two years at NYIT was a happy time for me. Besides my column for the Slate, I got a gig at WNYT, "The Station in the Woods," spinning records and rambling over the air into the early morning hours. I joined the campus Karate Club, working out with like-minded students in one of the lecture halls, where we'd push the chairs into the corners and spar with each other on the classroom's linoleum floors, sidestepping cigarette butts and discarded coffee cups.
The good folks at NYIT did something right by me along the way. I graduated with honors, got a job as a radio DJ, kept up the karate for several years afterward (and can still throw a mean roundhouse kick!), and have been a professional writer for more than 20 years. I, along with a group of other writers, have written one act of a seven-act play called "Seven: 9/11" that will open in New York this fall. Not bad for a guy who was wandering aimlessly until he took a right turn off Northern Boulevard.
Now, NYIT is finally reaching out to alumni like me. This magazine's editor sent me an e-mail asking if I'd like to hear about NYIT's progress. He also wondered if I'd like to get together with old college friends.
Yes, I'd like to see some organized events for alumni. I'd welcome the chance to see Maryann Bert, Harriet Shapiro and the other ink-stained veterans from the Slate. I'd like to speak with Bob Kranes, Linda Jay and Bonnie Bernstein from WNYT. I'd like to ask Jimmy Orlando from the Karate Club if he remembers visiting me when I worked as a bartender at Rumbottoms, and I didn't charge him all night. I wonder if his hangover was worth it? Heh.
I'd like to come back to the place where it all started for me, to see how the school has grown and to reassure myself that my experiences really did happen.
Even as I write this, the names from my past come rushing forth: Billy Gaines, Suzi Benfatto, Mark Allen Biggs, Cory Silverman. People I hung out with, and laughed with, and shared a special time with. Do I want to see them again? You bet.
I think the launch of this magazine and a greater emphasis on the alumni association are long overdue, and I can't be the only one who feels that way. They say you can't go home again, but it sure would be nice to visit.
Rory J. Thompson (B.F.A., '78) is Chief Copy Editor for Baseline Magazine in New York. Reach him at roryjthompson@netscape.net.
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