In August of 1979 Daniel arrived in Abilene for a 2-week freshman orientation. By this time his sister, Sally, had become a professor there. It’s difficult to determine his affect during the 2-week orientation.
By the time Daniel began his freshman year at ACU, he was extremely disoriented. He was missing classes and failing to complete assignments or fulfill even the most basic responsibilities. He did somewhat well early on in art classes, but soon after, he lapsed in his work there as well. Sally suggested he take her music theory class but Daniel demurred. She remembered him banging on the piano in the room adjacent to her classroom and being generally disruptive. Sally had him talk a school counselor, as detailed in the following entry, and felt like he was on the right track but he continued to tell his parents he wanted to come home. Ultimately he wore them down and they agreed to let him do that, on the condition he get a job to repay the lost tuition. Sally felt that they had let him off the hook too easily by allowing him to return and asserted that, if he’d stuck it out, he would have been fine.[1]
The drawings in his notebooks from this era display a man at his wits’ end. According to a fall 1979 notebook comic strip, 2 weeks into his time at ACU, he visited a guidance counselor to discuss returning home—the first time he had ever spent time with anyone approximating a mental health care professional.[2]
[1] Interview with Sally at Johnston family gathering, early September, 2019
[2] p. 15, NB79G