Friday, March 25, 2011

Maryland Day

Facebook...love it, hate it, or leave it? My relationship with this social network is not strong. As an introvert I'm not much interested in sharing my every thought with whoever is my virtual friend at the moment. So, not surprisingly, I rarely post messages or a current status. Today I was feeling nostalgic. It's Maryland Day, the day that celebrates the day a group of settlers landed their boat on the shores of the St. Marys River of what is now St. Marys City, Maryland. It was the first settlement in Maryland and also the place I spent four years of college.

Maryland Day weekend meant fun, frivolity and time outside with college friends. We would spend that day on the lawn of the old State House looking out on the glistening waters of the St. Marys River considering those who first arrived on the land we lived on at the time.

Okay, really, we just drank a lot of beer in the name of statehood. Yeah, it was another reason to gather and enjoy the company of friends. But it was historical, so it wasn't really like another night at the local pub.

Tonight I actually posted a status on Facebook, it said, "Happy Maryland Day to all my fellow Marylanders!"

Within ten minutes I had heard from three college friends. One is living in Belize, one in Washington State, and one in Annapolis. For all of us, living so far apart from the others, it was an instantaneous step back in time--one we all took together in the same moment. The responses made me smile. In that moment I felt like we were all sitting on that bluff above the St. Marys River together with an Old Milwaukee in our hand cheering on the setting sun.

2 comments:

  1. Lovely telling of your story, and quite a nice end to your Facebook try. It sounds like you had several nice surprises, not the least of which was that Facebook can be okay.

    ReplyDelete