You may ask, "What is the Wall of Fame?" Well, I'll tell you. But first, a story followed by some points.
When I graduated from high school, our valedictorian strutted to the podium to give her speech and the crowd started buzzing. You see, she was wearing a dress made out of duct tape. Through her speech, we discovered the profundity and general excellence of duct tape, including but not limited to it being a pretty cool dress making material. The point is, though I do not remember the particulars of her speech, I have never looked at a roll of duct tape in the same way again, and I will always remember it. My valedictorian would have made the wall of fame. And that's kind of the point of this post.
The first pic is an old WLTI poster. WLTI is what our radio station, WUML (http://www.wuml.org/ which is, incidentally, the largest student-run radio station in the country), was called back when UMass Lowell was two separate schools; Lowell Technological Institute and Lowell State College. At our accepted student reception two years ago I met a father who had this poster folded in half in a folder he was carrying. He took it out, showed it to me, and said that he had worked at WLTI back in the 70's. Then he gave it to me and asked that I give it to someone who might like it. I gave it to the Wall of Fame.
The second picture is self proclaimed 'Taped Crusader.' He basically had a utility belt and various articles of clothing made out of duct tape. I'm pretty sure he and my high school valedictorian are soul siblings. I'm very sure he was an instant Wall of Famer.
The third pic is a guy who participates in the largest Revolutionary War reenactment in the country, which takes place in the White Mountains of New Hampshire annually. The only reason I know that is the above pic and the essay that accompanied it. But I know that because of that applicant. Again, that's part of the point. He's a Wall of Famer.
The Wall of Fame is a wall I have behind my desk with all the interesting stuff that has come in accompanying applications over the years. I love it. It's inspiring and is, in a lot of ways, why I do what I do.
By now you may have an idea of what I'm getting at. If you do something different and interesting in your life, tell people about it. And you may think you're not that interesting, but neither is duct tape, and yet, as we can see, it is interesting. Not everyone is the star quarterback of the football team or the insert-cliched-interesting-thing-here, but anyone can be the be interesting. And interesting equals memorable, and memorable equals admissions people doing everything they can to get you in to their school. All it takes is a little creativity and a lack of fear to be different. If you do this, you'll make the Wall of Fame.
By the way, I would write about the Drawer of Fame, but it is a little less visual. The Drawer of Fame is a drawer I have with all the interesting cd's and dvd's that have rolled in to the office over the last few years. There is some great stuff in there. Anyway, maybe I'll post on that some other time. For now, back to work.
Ed
