College Freshman year - another post

That year, 1989, was an interesting one to say the least. My Dad and I sat down one day the prior year - so 1988 - right after I had turned 17 - and discussed my future. His first suggestion to me was and I quote, "What do you think about joining the Indiana Air National Guard?" To which I responded, "That sounds cool!" So for the next few weeks he arranged a meeting for me with the Guard base recruiter in Terre Haute, IN at Hulman Field. Terre Haute was and is very familiar to me beause from the age of 2 to the age of 15 we lived there. I spent many days and and nights roaming the streets of Terre Haute and Edgewood Grove in particular. Anway, we went down to the base and I met with the recruiter and he was very encouraged that I wanted to join the Guard at such a young age. I mean at 17 do any of us really know what we want? Do we know what career to follow? Are we serious about life yet? I was not and thought that this might #1 make my Dad happy and #2 get me in shape and #3 put some money in my pocket. All 3 things came true over the next 6 years and I'm really glad that I made that decision. Anyway back to 1989 - my freshman year in college is kind of a blur at this point. I mean it is 21 years later and that is a long time to remember back. Anyway - in 1989 Bush Sr. was president and the country was really doing pretty well. We were in a relatively low tax situation and the economy was growing. My thoughts at the time had absolutely nothing to do with that but . . .
So I started college and was thinking I wanted to be a Mechanical Engineer. I met with my advisors in the School of Science - which I had to get admitted to because the school of engineering only took B+ GPA's out of high school or better. The School of Science folks set me up with classes that if I did well, I could then apply to get into the School of Engineering and could do what I really wanted to do. My freshman year math class was really not that bad. We met 3 days a week - so Monday, Wednesday and Friday at like 8:30 in the morning. My math TA (Teaching Assistant) was from Iran of all places and when we would talk after class he was really upset about the war's going on all over the planet and, "Why doesn't the U.S. get involved and stop some of these things?" One of my good friends in that class was an Army veteran and was going to college, like me, on the Montgomery G.I. bill - meaning his tuition was supplemented by savings he put away while on active duty with the U.S. Army. He later would tell me that he paid all his tuition and housing expenses with the G.I. bill - to my amazement.