Right now, I am sitting in a dorm room. Yup, a college dorm room, with all the fine fixings of extra long twin sized beds, old wooden dressers and desks and a closet that is probably a fourth of the size of my closet at home. Why am I here you ask? Because when someone, anyone, gives you the opportunity to go back to your Alma Mater, live in a dorm, eat on campus, and learn new teaching techniques, you jump at the chance! And when our county’s science specialist asked if I was interested, and stated that the cost would be covered, I responded immediately, yes!
So here I am, in Potomac, a dorm with air conditioning and getting to revisit one of my favorite places. JMU is home, a home where I lived for 5 years and collected some of my best friends, favorite memories and hardest lessons. This place has seen the absolute best of me, and of course the absolute worst. So of course being back feels nostalgic in the best possible way. I usually come back for Homecoming every fall and walk around and enjoy time with my good friends. While homecoming always feels special to be back with friends, this experience feels nostalgic in an every day way. On Monday night, I walked over to the quad and felt like I was back in time, meeting up with my friends to go get Top Dog and then head to class. I walked past the library and could remember specifically all the times I went in, to the second floor (where all the greeks were naturally), and “studied”, aka listened to music and got distracted enough that I had to leave. It’s amazing how vivid these seemingly meaningless memories are as I walk around campus. Times like, building our “shack” for Shack-a-Thon during Greek Week, and walking to HHS from Festival for Chapter, going to Mr. Chips to get a snack when I ran out of punches for the day and then walking up the hill in the village to my dorm. I just love how even as time passes, this place stays the same, and no matter how old I get or how long it has been, it will always be here.
By the time you read this, I’ll only have a day in a half left to soak this all up. I’ll make sure to post about the actual conference and what I learned. In the mean time here is one of my all time favorite pictures from undergrad. 🙂 Go Dukes!
