It was a five-hour drive home from the campus. I had plenty of time to think on that drive. It would be the first time I had been home since I left for college.
My parents had driven up to visit me twice during the summer, most memorably over the Fourth of July weekend. Mom was relieved to meet some of my "girlfriends"—at least at first. Then she was concerned because there were so many of them, and with every one of the girls she met, we were "just friends." Oddly enough, at that time I really didn't have any close friends who were guys.
That seemed more of a concern for my father. He had a lot of buddies from his college days that he still kept in touch with. I understood that it was through his "network" of college friends that he had advanced his career. But it was my dad who figured
