The Purple Bench

I moved to Mankato on Wednesday. And up until today all I had done really was hang out in my apartment, run errands, try to buy furniture and get things settled here so that when classes start and work starts I’m not trying to get everything done at once. Plus, let’s be honest, I was just bored in Chicago, and figured this would at least be more productive than sitting at home. So I’m pretty much moved in and unpacked (not that there was much to unpack), and all I really have left to do is to tackle decorating. My favorite…. Everything had been pretty boring until today, because today I met Bob Simons.

I decided this afternoon to head over to campus and to spend some time just wandering around, getting my bearings and trying to convince myself that this was home, at least for now. Everything is so new that I was just desperate for something to feel familiar, and I figured the best way to make myself familiar was to just spend time there. So this is how I ended up on the purple (because everything here is purple) bench outside Armstrong Hall with my laptop.

I wasn’t there more than 5 minutes when I heard someone say “not getting ready for school already are you?” I looked up and there was a middle aged man with grey hair down to his shoulders in Levi’s, cowboy boots and dark sun glasses. I said no, that I was new to the University and I was merely getting myself acclimated. He said I was too old to be a freshman, which must make me a graduate student, and I told him I was studying Experiential Education. He said he didn’t know anything about it, and sat down and asked me to tell him about it. This is what started our 90 minute conversation about the American educational system and how it is failing miserably. We had tangents too, we shared stories about bears in Montana, or why Minnesotans dislike Wisconsinites. But by the end of the conversation Bob had left me in charge of revolutionizing the education industry, he said that all he knew was economics, and that the future of education was up to me. We both laughed.

It was getting late and I still had errands to run so I excused myself and he told me that his office was just inside the building we were sitting outside of, and that a few weeks after classes start I should stop in and say hello so we can catch up and he can get my opinion on what MNSU is doing wrong (or maybe right).

Bob Simons folks. My first friend in MN. Totally bizarre, and totally perfect all at the same time.