The moment my parents dropped me off at the dorm and drove away, it seems everything was swirling around me with so much to do do so quickly it was easy to be overwhelmed, but also the environment, so many cursing, drinking “wild” boys in the dorm from my perspective and no close friend anywhere at the school. My best friend in high school had gone to OSU as an engineering student. And my new “assigned” roommate was a Sophomore from nearby Oklahoma City, meaning he went home most weekends and we generally had very little in common, except that he was not one of those wilder boys getting drunk every weekend. 🙂
And I had no problem with the top bunk! 🙂
Working out my schedule was also no problem for a guy who liked to organize, and therefore my time balance was okay until I almost spent to much time at the BSU! 🙂
The workload was also made easier since I had saved up and paid for all of the first semester and room & board, not having to work until my second semester.
But almost immediately I realized that I was in “over my head” in some of the classes and was wishing the counselor had not pushed the advanced classes on me.
I studied late some nights and really tried but this Zoology Class was no high school biology! And the advanced Chemistry lab nearly killed me as did math the second semester. This was a tough school! Or they had given me classes I was not ready for!
Military Science (ROTC) was required for two years and was certainly “not my thing!” But just one more thing in life you learn to put up with! 🙂 I did not get photos of me in my army uniform until first semester of Sophomore year. But here is my Freshman ID Card:
I very quickly got involved in the BSU, Baptist Student Union, and it was my salvation socially and emotionally! It helped me to make sense of a lot of the confusion I was going through and was a more tranquil contrast to my dormitory. And even though I was already “a spiritual person” by most standards and had been active in church all my life, I suddenly found practical applications of my faith and reasons for the dogma or theology and an acceptance by all the people there. They were “my people” or in a sense “my family” at OU and thus I became one of the more active participants, especially with the leading of Willis and Gary. I will talk more about that on my BSU Page. 🙂
By the second semester of my Freshman year, January 1959, I was already dropping the earlier dream of being a doctor and thinking now more about being a missionary and/or some other related “ministry” vocation with no regrets and in fact with a lot of great anticipation which was expanded on during that summer mission project in Seattle, which also interestingly expanded my love of travel and desire to “See the World!” At this age one tends to think anything is possible except maybe those better grades I needed to qualify for Medical School! 🙂 And now it was local and foreign missions that captured my imagination and dreams!
Boomer Sooner!
¡Pura Vida!
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