Chapter 3
Vance found it difficult to muster much enthusiasm to face the challenges ahead of him. But he was looking forward to squeezing six years’ worth of college into just four years. He knew he would have no social life whatsoever, but then again, after it was all over, he could then relax and hopefully find someone to share his life with.
He quickly settled in to campus life in his first summer session. At least the summer classes weren’t as large, so he was able to ask many more questions than he otherwise would be able to during the regular school year. Vance dove right into his established pattern of all work and no play. He didn’t have time for any extracurricular activities so he wasn’t interested in joining a fraternity; that is until he was unequivocally directed to join the Sigma Chi — ΣΧ. He surmised that it was compulsory solely because his benefactor had been a member. He wondered why he was expected to follow in the footsteps of someone else. Why did they want him trained in the specific course studies he had to take? Perhaps one day he’d have answers to those questions. Until then, he just kept his head down and participated in fraternity events as little as possible. He volunteered mainly for set up and clean up for the many frat parties they held, though he attended only when it was mandatory of all members.
He worked diligently the first two and a half years of college, beleaguered by the sheer volume of work he had to complete in order to maintain his mandatory GPA. His only social life consisted of study groups which he avidly participated in to learn different ways of thinking and approaching the challenges of business economics, finance, investment management, investment analysis, derivatives and behavioral finance. The groundwork that was laid in high school and the advance classes he had taken provided him the underpinning that many of the other students lacked. Only now was he thankful for all the hard work he was required to do in preparation. Regular as clockwork, appropriate sums of money were regularly deposited into the special account as provision for his college expenses. It was as if his progress was being independently monitored and funds were deposited before the actual need arose.
It was when his third year was underway that he met Abigail (Abby) Bergstrom. She was in three of the same classes he attended. She was a third year accounting major and her courses apparently intersected with his. They ended up in the same four person study group seeking to pool their resources to enrich their understanding of the material. They ended up enjoying each other’s company very much, but Vance appeared to be obsessed with his grades, putting them even above his potential time spent with her. Abby was disappointed that he wouldn’t let up for hardly a day. She had never seen such academic dedication in any other campus student. Of course she had no idea about his circumstances because he was forbidden to tell her via non-disclosure documents he had signed with the blonde-headed bitch.
She had hoped that by summer, he could lighten up and make more time for them as a couple. She had planned on sticking around a couple of weeks so they could date more steadily but when she learned that he was taking on another maximum load of summer courses, she became disenchanted with his lack of prioritizing more time for her, so she just left him to his studies while she returned home and dated heavily over the summer.