Jon’s birthday is today. Check the archives for this day–or the day before, I can’t remember–last year if you didn’t see what I did last year. ‘Til the other side, my man.
Interestingly, this coincides with me walking around that substandard school yesterday.

As I’ve told you before, the nephew’s a bad, bad man. While I know most people discount the opinions people have about their families because of bias, I can assure you I ain’t that dude. Hitting the same numbers in the genetic lottery doesn’t mean I don’t know what’s up with somebody.
But really, the nephew’s a special one. How proud am I of him? I nearly bought a Morehouse uncle t-shirt. However, I then remembered my friends would beat the brakes off me for that. And since my nephew’s built slim like me, he wouldn’t be able to nothin’ to help but call 911.
Anyway, yesterday was the first time I’d walked around Clark’s campus at this time of year since I left. Made me realize how old and unfashionable I’ve become. Dude, these lil’ niggaz are sportin all kinds of shit that I hadn’t heard of. I probably couldn’t afford to hear of that stuff. Girls were accessorized to death. I’m walking around in a polo shirt and jeans, looking like I jumped out of a time machine.
But it was vicariously exciting strolling through all of that with the nephew because I remembered what it was like to see all of that for the first time. I stayed with whiplash for my first semester and a half. Straight whiplash. The week before classes started was the best because I’d never partied that much in my life. We partied cuz whythefucknot. It just all felt so new, but it was still incredibly natural and comfortable. Them good ol’ days, man.
That was when I met some of the closest friends I’ve got, that week. One of them cats owes me $200 bucks right now–yeah, you–so he’s kinda been disowned, but the rest of the freshman year squad is still in tact. We lost one to the universe, but we’re still goin’ strong.
Here’s hoping the nephew can say the same thing in eight years.
Degrees are pretty cool, but your folks are the best thing about college. Can’t wait to see how he is in four years.