Resurrecting Rip

I had this crazy idea. After working on the campus newspaper as a part of a Journalism III course in graduate school, I decided that I would like to write a weekly column in the paper for the fall semester. It would be my last semester in the graduate program at California University of Pennsylvania, and I had lots to say.

My professor liked the idea, but suggested that we set it up as Independent Study Article Writing class. Not only would I write my column, I would earn college credit for doing so. This seemed too good to be true. I jumped at the chance before he had time to think it over and change his mind.

I was a non-traditional student who had returned to school after a few years, and the experience had been liberating and awakening for me. You know, a little like Rip Van Winkle waking up after all those years? So ‘Rip Wakes Up” was born. Boy, did Rip wake up! For 12 glorious, blissful weeks, I wrote my column. I wrote about the graduate program in which I was enrolled, what it was like to be a non-traditional student on campus, and pretty much anything else that was on my mind. And the response? Well, people may not have always liked me, but they responded to me, they REALLY responded to me.

My most controversiaI column, strangely enough, was “Library Madness” which was meant to be a loving tribute to libraries. So maybe I complained about the student periodical clerks in the campus library who were either unhelpful or totally incompetent. Well, I wasn’t lying or anything, and I never said they were ALL incompetent. Nonetheless, the periodical clerks were pretty upset. There was some talk of sending hate mail to my home, but no one would give them my address. If they had only put that sort of energy into assisting me in the library, I wouldn’t have written about them in my column in the first place.

After graduating, I continued to do some freelance writing on assignment and even some write personal essays, a couple of which were published and three of which were recognized in national competitions. However, I never again had a column of my own. Once in a job interview, the interviewer asked, “If you could do absolutely anything , anything at all, what would you be?” Without even thinking about it, I heard myself say, “I’d be a nationally syndicated humor columnist.”

More than a few years have passed, and that national syndicate hasn’t come calling yet. However, I have recently entered the brave new world of social networking. In a Facebook quiz when I challenged my Friends to reveal how well they knew me, one of the questions addressed my dream job. After taking the quiz, my husband suggested that I write a blog.

What would a blog be but my very own on-line column over which I could have total controI? If I learned anything over the years, it was that it was never too late to do, well, anything you want to do. It didn’t take me very long (maybe 15 seconds) to decide that I would start my very own blog. It was time to resurrect Rip.

The second coming of Rip needed a name. As I reminisced fondly about that semester of my column at Cal U, I remembered the take-off of my column my friend Jeff wrote for the parody edition of the newspaper entitled “Rip Aches All Over.” Hey, that was it! The name of my blog! The parody had become reality. After all, I was older and more tired than in my Cal U days. If the truth be told, I was already aching a little when Rip woke up the first t ime.

So, I hope you enjoy the column, I mean, blog. I’d love to hear your responses and thoughts about what I’ve written. Just don’t send hate mail to the house.