October 9: tower on a hill

I had some encouraging meet ups with students here today. It is so wierd to be in this building and feel so detached from my past in it. Lots of memories. They took our class picture on the steps of the arch in the middle on my first day of school my freshman year...and then we marched through it led by bagpipes on our way to graduate. That was a glorious day. My favorite class ever was on the top floor of the tower part -- Jeff Roche's American history since 1945 was captivating. I spent hours on the west wing in my Independent Study professor's office. Embarassingly, I think she came to associate me with tissues. I cried through the whole ordeal because it was so hard and I didn't think I would ever finish. She was very sweet to me and knew just how to push me on my way. And then I gave my oral defense here a few months after that and I could get on with my life! My most favorite memory of all though was in the winter of my sophomore year. A huge snow was coming and word spread through dorm hallways all over campus that we were going to try to fill the arch with snow....we really believed the old legend that if we filled it they'd give us off school. Anyways, imagine hundreds of students in the middle of the night with their garbage cans all working together to pack the thing out. People were singing and drinking hot chocolate and tackling each other in the snow. It was spontaneous fun with a huge group of people who wouldn't normally be hanging out together. I love when that happens. We didn't get off school. eh!