Never again will I do that. Never.
Anyway, since I have not been able to breathe through my nose or go an entire sentence without coughing, I've decided to put off the C25K until next week. I am still very motivated to do it, but I've got to get myself completely well first.
This past weekend, I went back to my college Alma mater, Harding University, for a women's event with my friends, Amie and Dianna. Just being honest here, I only went to one of the main speakers and spent the rest of my time reminiscing over my college years. I spent some time walking around campus alone. It was a beautiful day and it seemed like everywhere I went had a special memory for me. Even the sidewalks brought back memories of how Heather (my roommate)and I left the dorm with just t-shirts and shorts with no shoes in the middle of a huge rainstorm and ran up and down the sidewalks splashing in the water. I went into the Ezell building where all of my psychology classes took place. I loved my psychology professors. I looked at the board of all of the ones that are still teaching there and wished that I could see them all again. I looked into the office of one of my favorite professors and thought about how I sat across his desk from him crying my eyes out about something that had happened and he gave me the best advice I could've been given in that situation. I thought about how I was so stressed out I was about my Stats final that I actually threw up in a trash can after I finished my test. I thought about Mrs. Luallen sitting at the secretary's desk and how Robbie and I both loved to go see her. So many memories in that old building.
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| Heather and I in our dorm room our Sophomore year |
I sat in one of the swings on the front lawn that I remember sitting in with Robbie before I knew that I would marry him. I thought about how we would take a blanket out on the front lawn and read the Bible and pray together. I had never known anyone like him before and I remember praying then that if Robbie wasn't the man I was supposed to marry then I wanted someone just like him. I had tears in my eyes as all of the memories came back to me while I sat there. I know that everything works out in God's time, but I had never just sat and thought about how perfect His plan was until right then.
I needed that time.
I decided I would go back and be part of the conference that I had gone to Searcy for but as I was waiting on the next thing to start, one of my best friends from college, Carla, stepped out of the conference room she was in. So Carla and I decided to skip out on the next part and walk around campus together. We went into the Benson Auditorium where we had chapel everyday at 9 am the four years I was there. We were allowed 10 chapel skips per semester and I used every one of mine up. I am not a morning person, so if I didn't have an 8:00 am class to get to, then getting up for chapel proved to be very challenging.
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| This is a reflection of Carla and I overlooking the front lawn. Love this view! |
When Carla and I got in the Benson, we saw that there was a group on the stage practicing for Spring Sing, which is coming up on Easter weekend. I was a part of Spring Sing my freshman year of college along with my fellow Delta Gamma Rho peeps and had the best time, but I remember those early Saturday practices when we would've all rather still been in bed. I was amazed at how many of the students wore their pajama pants to practice, and then tried to remember if I had done the same thing before I talked about how tacky it was. And even though I couldn't remember what I wore to Spring Sing practice 17 years ago, Carla and I still had to say something about it.
When did the pajama pant become socially acceptable for public wear, anyway?
It's just not right people.
Anyway, after Carla and I had critiqued everything that the group on the stage were wearing, we walked around the campus together. We went into Cathcart, which was my freshman dorm, and looked around the lobby. I thought about how my friends had gotten me a cake for my birthday while I was living there and we had a big party in the lobby. My time spent in Cathcart is some of my very favorite Harding memories. There was a 'ghost' in the dorm that would turn mine and Heather's TV on and off and the volume up and down. Her name was Gerdie. We talked to Gerdie as if she were in the room with us. Either there really is a ghost named Gerdie or we had one really messed up TV. Either way, we felt like she was with us most of the time and would occasionally get bored and need to mess with us, which was totally ok with both of us.
Harding has made so many changes since I graduated from there that there are parts of the campus I don't even know about. I was sad to see that they had taken out the steps where Robbie and I had our first kiss. Did they not even think to ask if anyone wanted a little piece of that concrete to at least use as a paper weight? There is no telling how many couples that are married today had their first kiss on those steps.
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| Robbie and I were all dressed up to go to an opera together here. It was my Sophomore yr and this was the first night that I thought that I may one day marry this guy. |
I am so thankful for my time at Harding. I know it has everything to do with the person I am today. The friends I made there are worth more to me than all the money in the world. I am thankful for my parents that strongly encouraged me to go there (and by that I mean, I had a Harding flag hanging in my room from the time I was 5 and that was the ONLY college I was ever exposed to). I am thankful for that time away from my parents so that I could discover my own faith and to decide for myself what I believe. And most of all, I am thankful for God lining everything up perfectly for Robbie and I. We had a few years of an on/off relationship before I realized that he was just not going to give up and I needed to just go on and marry the boy. (Just kidding, honey.) (Well, kind of.)
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| Robbie and I at a Delta Gamma Rho function in 1995. |
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