posted 2007/10/04 at 23:23
This coming Saturday I'm heading to Cleveland to play dancey games and chat with my friend Lara. I've been wanting to hang with her for a while now -- I last saw her this past winter at a dance game tournament she was helping to run, and since she was so busy running the tournament we really didn't have much of a chance to talk -- but it was only in the past couple of weeks we were able to work the specifics out. (I don't want to spoil too much, but I'll have something special for all of you shortly after this trip.) Although we haven't worked it out yet, I'm hoping that she'll return the favour in a week or two and come to Toledo, likely to go take photos of the leaves at our local parks, hit a pizzeria, and maybe go down to Levis Commons (I think she'll dig the architecture there). It'll be a fun time, given how Lara is one of the few people I know whom I can feel comfortable calling a friend at this point.
This, unfortunately, will segue all too well into the heart of this entry. Last night I discovered (I won't say how because I need to protect another friend) that this Saturday, while I'm in Cleveland, there will be a multi-year reunion of Spectrum members going on at UT's campus. Given that this event is apparently being organized by the person who not only drove me out of Spectrum but also has yet to do anything about the hundreds of dollars of my personal effects that I have yet to get back from other Spectrum members, I can't say that I was expecting an invitation, and even if I'd gotten one I probably wouldn't have wanted to go. Still, there is something about the fact that I was left so out of the loop on this reunion that just gets under my skin. I hate being bitter about anything, but the way I was forced out of Spectrum still feels wrong, and even now that I'm long gone from UT I still feel like there's this huge cloud hanging over me from a wrong that was done to me that I never tried to right.
What bothers me the most is the sheer immaturity of this situation. I announced my decision to leave Spectrum on this blog because I knew some members of the group were reading this, and I know that someone did because I said that I wanted off of Spectrum's mailing list here, and I never got another e-mail from them. However, in that same post I also made a list of all the things that were owed to me -- my own possessions that had gotten scattered about during three years as a part of Spectrum's officer team -- and I have yet to still hear about any of them, let alone get them back. I have left messages on Spectrum's voicemail, slipped notes under the door to their physical office, sent e-mails, gotten Spectrum faculty advisors involved, and done everything else I could think of to get my stuff back, and all I've gotten back is silence. It's not just that some of the items cost a lot and can't really be replaced, but some of them have very strong sentimental value to me, including the first full-size music keyboard my parents ever bought for me.
On the off-chance that there is still someone from Spectrum reading this, I want my stuff back. No matter what some people in the group may think of me, that does not make it acceptable to keep my personal possessions from me after repeated attempts to get them back. This infantile behaviour has got to stop.
Three simple words that will make your life much more bearable: let it go.
I know I should, Joe, and I had, but for some reason getting left out of the loop about this reunion kind of hit me in a sore spot. I figure if nothing else, this may be my last opportunity to attract some kind of attention to getting my stuff back when the people who have said stuff will all be in the same place at once. (I might have even considered crashing said reunion had I not already made plans with Lara.)
copyright © 2008 Sean Shannon