Fabulous at Fifty, Grossmont College remains a treasure

Grossmont College is fabulous at 50. I went there today with a friend for the party celebrating a half-century of opening new windows to the world to students. We signed the largest birthday card ever—a world record of 1,500 signatures. As a thank-you from the college, we each received a free t-shirt and a cloth bag—who can have too many?

We snooped around inside the new Student Center, marveling at the view out the wide windows. Those clouds were as blue and black as ever. Maybe when the weather’s nice, I’ll head up someday to the campus to meet a friend and get some Penne Pasta or Southwest Salad from the cafeteria and sit outside in the patio chairs and gaze at those hills.

Back outside, we sampled Lavender Lemonade, Turkey Brie Melts and Pumpkin Donut Holes from the various food trucks parked around. The wind was blustery and brutal, sometimes kicking our napkins right out of our hands. We laughed and walked over to watch the Dabke dancers at the Arabic Club booth. At the Dance Department building, we sat inside all cozy in the darkness. Some of Don Mullen's dance students cavorted and twirled just inches in front of us, a sneak preview of the upcoming dance concert.

What really took the cake for us was the stop in at the Art Studio. Along the front wall was a collection of squares painted by twenty-some artists who had dropped in during the day. The collage will ultimately be displayed in the Tech Mall or some other place on campus. The studio was quiet and intimate with people painting and drawing. It felt like church in the studio the way we were all thankful and meditative. My friend squirted blobs of acrylic paint onto glassine paper, and we each gathered a piece of wood to paint on.

I stared at the whiteness for a minute, happy, decided on an image of a tree the way it looked when I photographed it with color infrared film. My friend did a simple abstract of wavy lines in shades of blue. She decided to take her piece of art home. I showed my tree to art instructor Jennifer Bennett, and she welcomed me to include it in the mural. I had so many art projects at home I felt glad to give something back to the college.

Grossmont College has given me much of what I have now in terms of work, friends, and community. I started with a General Education degree, taking a long time to do so since I dabbled in a bit of everything. Along the way, I wrote for the Summit and tutored Spanish and English and History and even Philosophy. Grossmont College was my home-start; it was also my home-coming.

I have always appreciated the college’s motto: Start Here, Go Far, Stay Near. That’s just what you do when you find yourself, your community and your passion for work and life.