Jumping into my packed to the gills ten year old VW bug and promising on my Girl Scout honor to not pick up hitchhikers, I started driving east, all the way across Texas—one big state. The 2,000 mile trip to Elkins was broken up by short visits with my grandparents in Little Rock, Arkansas, cousins in Kentucky, and my Aunt Soocie’s family in Charleston, WV. The bug was in need of some mechanical work and the college did not allow freshmen to have cars on campus—even those who had driven across the country to get there—so Aunt Soocie and I made the trek to Elkins in her new VW bug. After driving old blue across country, I thought I was arriving in style. On our way up the mountainous road, my aunt demonstrated how to straighten the curves of the country roads.
Dorm life is an animal of its own—sharing a bedroom with a complete stranger, a bathroom down the hall that typically has a waiting line for the showers, and one telephone in the hall for 18 girls. Remember this was 1971—no cell phones, internet, nor laptops. Most of my memories forty years later have little to do with the academics of my freshman year. Finding myself unprepared academically was a shock, as high school hadn’t taken much effort for me to ace. I quickly decided not to pursue a degree in mathematics which had been my original intent
