As summer has reached its end, the Young Alumni Committee decided to host several happy hours around the country; the theme: Back to School. What was so exciting and different about this particular event(s) was that all cities involved met up on the same night at the same time: Wednesday night at 6pm. The featured cities were New York City, Boston, Washington, D.C., Portland, ME, and for the first time, Portland, OR!
Over the summer, we had many successful On The Water events in various cities, such as New York City, Boston, Burlington and a local edition at Whetstone Station, owned by NMH Alum, David Hiler '83! Thanks to the wonderful hospitality of a fellow NMH basketball player, Colin McIntosh '05. I was able to attend On the Water in Burlington. Even I had only been up there once, and obviously didn't live there, I never felt like an outsider at any point that night. I had the same experience in Boston last fall. The NMH family doesn't really have any geographical boundary; if there's an NMH banner in sight, you'll be welcomed with open arms.
Last summer, I met up with a few friends in NYC: Nick Farhi '06, who was my dad's advisee at Hillside, Alex Boll '06 and Matt Lupo '07. I knew all three guys independently from my time at NMH, and Alex and Matt are currently roommates, but they didn't even know that Nick was living in the city. Just meeting up with the three of these guys caused a reconnection, which I thought was pretty cool. And I reconnected with Matt by going to an On the Water in NYC a couple of summers ago. Attending an alumni event can have lasting effects, if you make an effort to meet people.
Although Reunion will always hold a very special place within our NMH Alumni traditions, each class is only included once every five years; that's what makes it so exciting. Alumni meet ups off campus, however, can serve a different purpose, because instead of reconnecting with your classmates, you are able to establish connections with alumni where you live, whom you may have never met before. Or maybe you reconnect with a classmate you only talked to a few times, and now you become great friends years later. Instead of leaving the event saying, "See you in five years," you now have the opportunity to see them the next week, month, etc. These simple one evening events can turn into something much more, and they inspire us to set up meet-ups on our own, which is what it's really all about.
Most importantly, in my experience, the two or three hours you spend at with your fellow former schoolmates, you feel part of a family and you almost feel like you're back at NMH. You can say things like "Hogger" or "Workjob" and everyone knows what you're talking about, or scream "BRING ME MY ARROWS!" and you aren't looked at as crazy, but reminded of a special time in your life. It's comforting. We're all part of this fraternity, in a sense, regardless of age. A member of the Class of 1980 and the Class of 2013 will probably already have more in common walking into the room than most of their co-workers. After an hour of talking, you start to feel like you never left NMH, and, like your time at NMH, you don't want it to end.
As I look toward this coming year, I will doubtfully make another alumni event until Reunion next summer. However, I know that pretty much any city in the world I find myself in, I will more than likely find my NMH Family not too far away.
