Call the President

I was in a college line dancing class one day when we were interrupted mid-heel toe dosey doe by the arrival of two college police officers. Curious and worried, I watched as they spoke with my instructor and my heart sank when they turned and looked at me.

Right? It was like something from a bad dream. They waved me over and told me there was an emergency - I had to call my mother immediately. They gave me a ride back to my dorm room. I imagined every worse-case scenario the whole ride back. I'd repeat them here but they were pretty grim.

I ran into my room and called my mom.

MOM: Hello?

ME: It's me. Oh my god, what's wrong? What happened?

MOM: You got a phone call.

ME: [Ummmmmm] What?

MOM: You got a phone call from someone named Pat at Penn State. It sounded important, she asked that you call her back as soon as possible.

ME: WHAT? Are you kidding me? You called the police to come and get me from class so that I could return a PHONE CALL! I thought someone was dead. What is wrong with you? Why would you think it was a good idea to have the police come and get me out of class so that I could return a phone call.

MOM: It sounded very important Amy. They said that you won some prize and that you had to let them know whether you were going to accept it. Besides, I didn't call the police - I called the President.

ME: The President!?! What are you talking about?

MOM: I called the President of the College and told him I needed to talk to you immediately. He must have called the police. I didn't know the police would come and get you out of class.

ME: [To be honest, she might have believed that the college President was going to walk to my dorm room to deliver me a "While you were out" note. It's hard to say] There's something seriously wrong with you.

The "prize" was a National Science Foundation Award to perform demographic research in the Orkney Islands. The one upside to this story was that it worked as a good ice breaker when I met the rest of the crew that summer.

Summer Photo Journal

Westray, Orkney Islands