Knitting Therapy

Well, he's finally king, here on Grinnell Campus. It was odd watching it today, on the Harris screen. Lord of the Rings has bookended my life here. First year, I remember downloading the fabulous new trailer, the first one, onto Percy and watching it in my room. leiascully is sitting there now, where mindmaven and I talked about it for the very first time. It was such a big deal. herodotusjr was just sure they were going to ruin the whole thing. I had reservations and high hopes.

And then, second year, Fellowship came out. Things were rough here. It was the semester of 9/11, and everyone was turned around and backwards. Some of us journeyed en masse to a finals week showing outside of Des Moines. When it came to campus at the end of the year, we cheered.

For Two Towers, we saw the previews and magazines in London. It was one of the first things I did when I got back into the country. I went with Mike, my close friend from high school, and a bunch of his Macalester friends. When Two Towers was shown on campus in the spring, the shit hadn't hit the fan yet. Dag stormed the theatre in garb and with swords. It was the last truly happy memory before I went home.

And then, there was this year. I saw Return of the King with my friend Mike, over Winter break. Then, we chatted about the summer. I still wanted to go to Georgetown. I wasn't sure I was making the right choices. I saw it with my mom over spring break, when my dad was in Chicago and my sister in Italy. We stayed and watched the credits.

This was probably the last movie I'll watch in Harris. Just like always, there were the annoying guys who whispered the whole time. We laughed because of the lines that reminded us of The Very Secret Diaries. And when the credits rolled, I wanted to cry, because I finally realized that this really is the end of being a Grinnellian.