long time no post

So I get out of my 8AM organic chemistry lecture today and I’m walking with a friend and talking about how we are going to get together and study for the test later this week and I notice that although we are walking relatively slow, there is a tall guy walking behind us. “Why doesn't he just walk around us?” I thought “its not like we are taking up the whole sidewalk”… but it wasn’t a huge deal… my friend Mike had to go to a class in the math building so he walked off and I started off to my next class. I hear from behind me someone say “Excuse me”… I turn around and it’s the guy that was following us. I’m thinking, oh boy… this guy probably wants to tell me about his cult, or maybe ask for a donation for the save the grass foundation, or ask me how to get to the parking garage or something random like that.
“Where did you get that necklace?” he asks me… seemed strange for someone I didn't know to be asking me that, but I told him “I got this from marching with the Bluecoats Drum and Bugle Corps this past summer”… he smiled and told me he marched with the Bluecoats in 1998. I just thought that was so amazing… on a campus of over 26,000 people who probably all think a drum and bugle corps is some sort of division of the military, someone noticed me as a fellow bluecoat only by seeing my necklace. We stood there and talked for 10-15 minutes about all sorts of things… it was an instant connection. I had never met him before, and knew nothing about him, but when he told me he had marched with the bluecoats I knew we had more in common than just about any other stranger I could have bumped into on the street… and obviously that's an understatement. Turns out he marched contra too, and he asked about Mark who he thought was really funny, and if Doug was still writing the music, and about the new uniforms. I told him about everything that was going on, and about the past season and anything interesting I could think to tell him. I asked him if he had seen the show this past year and he said “yes” with a big smile. He went on to say how it made him so proud to see how well the bluecoats were doing in the years since he marched. So I was late to my next class, but I was just so happy that I met possibly the only other bluecoat at the University of Tennessee and it was just so great to connect to someone who knew what I had been through this past summer… and how we could both appreciate what it was like for the other person (especially since we both marched contra). Just thought I would share since it really made my day.