Chapter 1: In Which They Meet

Lisa pushed back from her desk, tipped her chair back a little, and looked up at the ceiling. She slowly exhaled. She had had a productive morning, with lots of creative energy, but now it was time to take a little break. Lisa had been working in advertising for five years and this is one of the things that she had learned to do. She had started at Pravaha Creative Associates right out of college, first as a creative assistant and then had moved up to graphic designer. She reminded herself that you can’t keep that kind of energy going all day long. Sometimes you just have to take a break, stare at the ceiling, throw a few wadded-up balls of paper in the general direction of the trash can, and let your mind wander. With no waddable paper close at hand, Lisa decided that checking her e-mail would be just the thing to waste a few minutes, so she sat up and opened her inbox to see if there was anything interesting.

She quickly scanned the subject lines at the top of her inbox. There were pitches for new credit cards, some intriguing travel opportunities, a clumsy phishing attempt, and then something from St. Margaret’s College, her alma mater. The subject line was about the upcoming Reunion Week in June. Lisa had good memories of St. Margaret’s. She had arrived as a freshman intending to major in marine biology, but had found herself more at home as a communications major. She had learned a lot both in and out of class and had met a lot of really amazing people. It didn’t seem possible that it had been five years since graduation.

As she scrolled down through the activities planned for the week, Lisa saw some interesting lectures and seminars that might be relevant to her professional development and

started to think of the possibilities for networking with professors and fellow alumnae. Most of her friends and colleagues thought that she was making great progress in her career at PCA and might even make Project Manager in a few more years, but Lisa had been feeling restless and wanted to get ahead even faster.

Just as Lisa was about to click on the “Register Now” button, another activity caught her eye. Some of the sororities, including her own Theta Delta Eta, were

offering tours for their alumnae of both their houses and of the campus. The idea was to give alumnae a chance to catch up with all the changes that had been going on in recent years. Lisa had heard about a new high-tech media center being built on campus and was curious to see it and this sounded like a great way to do that.

As she thought about St. Margaret’s, Lisa’s mind went back to some of the great times she had had there. She would always be grateful that St. M’s had been such a welcoming place for an out and proud lesbian. She hadn’t been as lucky in high school, where she always felt that she had to keep her head down a little. In college, however, she had blossomed. She had dated lots of girls, none very seriously, but she appreciated that she could be with them right out in the open, not having to sneak around. It had been a liberating experience.