8/24/11
And, finally, an hour later I arrived in Greenville, North Carolina, home of my cousin Paisley, a newly inducted Pirate. After having some direction and parking issues, we were finally reunited in eternal cousinly love – until I got to her dorm room and saw that a unicorn had barfed a shocking pink all over the room – it was disgusting. It was only the first week or so that Paisley had been there, but she was already surrounded by a gaggle of girls I was soon introduced to. They all seemed to have heard of me through Paisley’s stories – which is really quite a scary fact. I got a late night tour of the campus, including musical stairs, spitting fountains, and inadvertently where the drunk bus drops students off at their dorms. It was Wednesday and my cloistered William and Mary upbringing had me appalled – though admittedly the students were quite entertaining. The next morning Paisley took me to lunch (though I had desperately tried to wake her up for breakfast).
We cherished the waning hours, showering each other in warmth and self-esteem building kindness. When it came time for me to leave, Paisley just could not hold back her tears of sadness and held me in an embracing hug that we both hoped would never end. It was really quite a touching moment; several students around us even stopped mid-step and broke into tears and shouts of grief that we should be so painfully separated.