ULV- It's good to see you!

Last Friday on the way to Palm Springs Rodger and I stopped in La Verne to get something to eat. While there I couldn't resist the chance to see my Alma Mater.

Much of it looked the same but some looked different. It was empty being summer vacation and all. One HUGE difference is the new Student Center, or at least what will be the new Student Center. It's the massive structure in the pictures below. Behind it you can barely see the old Student Center, "The Tents". They were starting the new structure when I graduated but I didn't know it would be a building of this scale. To me it just doesn't fit the warm, small, community environment that is ULV. However, I am willing to reserve judgment and see what it looks like when it is finished.

Of course while in La Verne I had to stop at my beloved Circle K that I frequented during my years at ULV. It was all arranged differently but the general feeling was there. I had a nice conversation with the lady that worked there about how I went to La Verne and her daughter did also. I told Rodger when we left that you just don't get that kind of friendliness everywhere.

"This is the stupidest thing ever!" -Rodger

Sweet Reunion

It might seem strange but when I think of college I never immediately think of classes, papers, presentations, or projects but it's the moments that come flashing back at me. College was such a great experience. While at first I resented paying my student loans, I can honestly say now that I never for one second regret all the money I am paying back for going to ULV. I know that as a woman I am extremely privileged to receive any education let alone a college education.

Being on campus made me miss college. I can't explain the exact feeling I get when thinking about college but I am sure it is familiar to many of you. I get this warm feeling in my chest, and tears stings my eyes a little, and I can't help but smile. It was such a time of growth in my life and I think of it with nothing but fond thoughts. It's not that I long to go back to that time, although I will admit there have been many occasions when I wished I was still in college, it's just that while your in college there is this feeling that the world is going on around you rather than being in the thick of it. ULV provided a sort of bubble that protected you from what was happening on the outside and gave you a chance to look at the world the way that it could/should be. It was such a time of idealism for me and when I get too jaded about society I like to remember about what I believed in college. Maybe I was naive but I like to think that the perfect world and society I believed in then can still exist. And I guess if it doesn't I can always go back to La Verne and pretend like it does.