Paladin

In our last issue we reported on the current status of Furman's lake restoration efforts, which have been organized under a recently developed master plan. Earlier this week project director Rick Huffman, of EarthDesign, presented the plan to students. While the master plan is new, along with many of the specific recommendations outlined therein, the broader effort to improve the safety and aesthetic of our campus' centerpiece was started in 2006, during Furman's Year of the Environment.

For a while, I have kept a personal vendetta not to join what I mostly considered a mass temper tantrum of Furman students over our infamous alcohol policy. I am breaking that vendetta now, but I do so out of concern, hope and a realization that time is of the essence.

Last week's edition of The Paladin featured a cover story about the other type of "engaged learning" that goes on at Furman: the proposals, engagements and marriages that occur among some undergraduate students. "Must have been a slow news week," someone at my lunch table commented, because early engagements and weddings among Furman students is hardly a surprise to most of us.

Every spring, a frightening thing happens to roughly one-fourth of the Furman population. They graduate. We all know graduation, having experienced it in high school, but each one of us knew then that our next step would be college. But what happens after Furman? After you leave the Bubble, after you are really and truly done with classes, finals and CLPs? When you finally have to pay off those student loans, find your own housing, get a job? I've learned a lot about this recently, as this semester has been my wading pool into the ocean of grown-up land.

The white dress, family and friends and a husband are all part of the dream wedding for which many women can't wait. I, too, can hardly wait for their special day. But I am also a realist, and realistically I'm not too sure that being married in college is such an easy "walk in the park.