The Great Network

Rotary Holland 1994-95 Exchange Students

GNet Home     AboutGNet     GNetProfiles     GNetMaps     GNetMessageBoard     ejr Home     ejrContact

Rotary Holland 94-95 Exchange Students

June 27, 2007: Just a brief note to those interested... For more updated information, I am encouraging all to join Facebook and the group "Rotary Exchange Netherlands, 93/94/95". Post your info and pictures there and you won't have to wait for me to get you caught up on this site!

As for my intro written a few years ago... Here goes:

The Great Network was an amazing phenomenon that came about, from my point of view, in the early months in the fall of 1995. I recall having spent the most amazing year of my life up to that point in another country, having learned a lot about myself, having truly taken in a new language for the first time in my life, and having made some terrific friendships with people from all over the world. Whether we were sharing in a collective Dutch experience, going through our own version of missing people and places we'd known our whole lives, or just enjoying the richness of each other's company, I can definitely say that the depth of that year was magnified immensely by having such a tight group experience. (In fact, my childhood best friend said of me upon my return, "He's like, Eric... AMPLIFIED.") There was a terrific amount of energy that came from the chance to see people again and try to "bring back" a fraction of what I felt I'd soaked up. But I think most of us felt, in addition to the excitement and reentry shock, a very strong connection to one or more exchange students we'd met in Holland.

We had been a sounding board to each other, a "getaway" from the shared culture shock. We had become new best friends and travel companions and in some cases lovers. And in my first few, humid weeks at the University of Kansas, as I learned to readjust to life in "America's Heartland" in 1995, I recall discovering a new miracle. I would quickly learn to take it for granted, and now seldom go a day without using it. E-mail. Universities all over North America and on many other continents were offering their students this crazy thing called "e-mail" -- as a free service with attending. Suddenly, being in a world where I could communicate with people far away, but didn't have time to write long letters (gasp: by hand!) was a godsend. I wondered where it had been when I'd been in Holland, writing friend and family for hours at a time, but I had a lot less time to do that sort of thing upon returning to the bustle of life in my home country.

Here we Rotary exchange students were, estranged after many months of familiarity and bonding, flung back out to our countries of origin and embarking on new, strange adventures. But rather than languish completely and forever into the obscurity of memory, there was a good yearlong spark where we began to slowly find one another -- stretching out our experimental cybertentacles, feeling, touching, grasping in the semi-darkness -- and finally creating distribution lists where we could banter back and forth from time to time. It may seem like no large accomplishment today, for most parts of the world, but I do remember that first rush of amazement that I could "find" people's e-mail addresses on this Internet-thing, like some sort of worldwide yellowpages. That I could force upon my friends so far away whatever snippets of foolish commentary I wanted -- it was as easy and convenient as channeling thoughts onto a keyboard. And I could now hear bits and pieces of what was going on in their lives now, 3 states or half the world away.

Thinking about putting together that mailing list of personal friends, many of whom I never expected to see again, seemed like a hopeful start. I didn't really know what would come next, any more than I did the day I boarded my first solo plane trip, headed for Europe for the first time in my life. But having an opportunity to hang onto friends and keep the connections forged on that continent in that year seemed like a little bit of magic in my first year on my own in America.

The list wouldn't endure forever, though. A letter is a telegraph is a phone is a fax is an e-mail. Words are amazing things, and the tools we use to share them are marvels. But the tools can't make "closer" equal "together". Lives roll on, and the world in proximity to you has a way of monopolizing your attention. Steeds met de vooruitgang bezig, I would always say in Holland when I moved from one host family to another. Don't forget everything you've given and received, but don't let it hold you back from your next step in life.

In some ways, I liken it to an accelerated version of the whole DotCom Bust in the US. There was tremendous excitement and several really put some energy into The Great Network for awhile, and many of us enjoyed things we hadn't ever expected to see. But inevitably, most of us went back to living our new lives, just occasionally taking advantage of being able to communicate with the friends of yesteryear at the other end of the keyboard. I think the most comforting thing about the Great Network of 1995 was the comfort of knowing that we could stay connected, that we could still touch base with each other and see where our new lives were taking us since the days of Nederland. And now I'd like to propose that we still can.

How did that song go?... About drinking our way up from the bottom of the ocean? It's a long way up in our ascent. And once in awhile, it's nice to look down, look around and to see. To see how you got to where you are, and to see where those who were once beside you have gotten off to.

Reunion 2005 Update:

The first official GNet reunion fell through for Las Vegas in autumn 2005. Here were the reunion details if anyone wants to use it as a springboard for a 2006 reunion.

-ejr, Feb. 5, 2006

Copyright © 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 Eric J. Reid

GNet Home ||><|| AboutGNet ||><|| GNetProfiles ||><|| GNetMaps ||><|| GNetMessageBoard ||><|| ejr Home ||><|| ejrContact