Glimpses

Chapter 6

September 24th, 2021

"Thank you! Ladies and gentlemen that was Marion Cowan," the host of the event said. The crowd applauded.

Rory had held her breath a little as she's listened to Marion, one of the two 12 graders she'd chaperoned to Yale for a day and half, had successfully concluded her speech. She was a good speech writer, it was the presentation that she sometimes struggled with. But as the girl had been the last in the long list of speakers, Rory had sensed the girl had been nervous as a cat.

"Good job," Rory said to Marion, who was just returning to her seat. 

The girl was a lot like her - a little shy and timid, but smart, she just didn't always dare to show it, having only during the past year, since Rory had been teaching her, come a little out of her shell. 

The other girl, Lexi Cartwright was the polar opposite of Marion and Rory really didn't connect with her much. But, thankfully, Lexi was fairly low maintenance, having never been much trouble. And all Rory really needed to do for the night was to make sure neither got lost and drunk on any of the college parties, her embarrassing experience with Anna from her own college days still in her memory.

The host continued to make a few concluding statements about the evaluation process and introduced the itinerary for the following day which was largely about giving the students a chance to attend Yale tours or lectures, if they liked, a celebratory lunch with the Dean of Admissions and the award ceremony.

As the competition ended, Rory gathered up her stuff and got ready to guide the girls to the dorm they were staying in. Rory knew how to work the system at Yale, that was for sure - only the first ones to register for the competition actually got to stay the night on campus while most of the group had to take a shuttle to some 3-star hotel on the outskirts of town. The dorms may not be fancy, they never were, but they had their charm. She at least liked to think the two girls would see it that way. 

They were staying in Saybrook, which was just adjacent to her own former college, Bradford, colorful climbing vines creating a similarily pleasant autumn mood that she recalled from her own college times in relation to this place.

As they walked over Rory of course shared a few stories from her Yale excursion repertuar, leaving out the boring bits - her graduate education and experience as an actual journalist had given her the necessary self critique.

The room much like her first college dorm - a smallish living room with a few armchairs and a fireplace, and two double rooms, both with single beds. The latter was actually something not for just Rory to grumble about internally, but also for Lexi. Lexi was very much the kind of girl who'd grown up with a golden spoon in her mouth, hence probably had never slept in a single bed in her life. Marion was quiet as usual, but at least neither was openly complaining too much.

"So, get settled, and dinner in 30 minutes?" Rory suggested to her students, already traveling down memory lane, almost as if hearing the voices of her first college roommates bickering about something in the background. Good times - she thought.

"Yes, Ms. Gilmore," Marion replied, and headed for her room.

It was the first time Rory didn't appreciate the formalness of their interaction. In a Chilton setting it was good to keep boundaries clear and follow through on treating everybody with the same respect, much like one did, for example, in a business setting that was essentially one of the scenarios they were supposed to prepare the students for. Here, however, she just wanted to be Rory.

She recalled awkwardness with the formal and casual names when Max had told her to call him Max instead of Mr. Medina. But she had truly respected Max from trying to create a more personal relationship with her as a student too. It hadn't all been about her mom. In a way he'd been her mentor.