Visiting College

Last Saturday I visited Jamestown College, where my husband and I met, and where I really became the kind of person I am today.  It was homecoming, and there was a reunion for choir members.  I almost didn't go, but I'm so very glad I did.  I saw so many neat people I haven't seen, and in some cases even thought of for years and years.  Our amazing college choir director, who retired after my junior year, was back to direct scores of alumni who were ready to sing.  It was by far a much more meaningful experience than I had ever anticipated.

While I have been blessed to sing with many good choral ensembles, large and small, since college, groups that are probably far technically superior to my college choir, groups that have had amazing conductors and not so amazing conductors and leaders, groups that have sounded better in concert and worse in concert than my college choir, no ensemble I have ever been included in has been quite so passionate about the music being worked on.  In none of those ensembles have I ever felt quite so connected to the music I was singing as in my college choir.  It was a much bigger deal to be singing at the alumni concert than I really ever considered it might be.  In other words, I spent at least half of our final song in tears, TWICE.  

Throughout college, until I was student teaching in my senior year, I practically lived in the chapel, the building where the music department was housed.  There is a new building for the fine arts now, which seems very strange to me, but is probably a vast improvement for the current students.  Still, I LOVED practically living in the chapel.  The building is old.  It's creaky.  It's where my husband visited me every night after midnight and played tricks on the security guards while I was practicing.  (He once had to hide under the pews in the sanctuary to avoid being caught sneaking in through a door that never really quite locked after the doors were supposed to be locked at midnight.  He popped up from the floor under the pews and nearly scared me off the piano bench).  It felt so good to be back in the chapel.  I felt home inside my skin for the first time in a long time.  I loved the dusty, old smell the minute I walked in the door on Saturday.

This is the afternoon view from the front of the chapel.  This is what I saw every day at 11:55 during choir rehearsal behind the conductor, and every afternoon when I practiced piano on the Steinway in the front.  During my last year of school, the organ was refurnished.  Before that, there was a beautiful round stained glass window above the balcony.  This is also where I have oodles of recitals, and had many, many band and choir performances, along with chapel services with my friends, ministry team meetings, and all sorts of semi-important college ceremonies took place here as well.  Pretty much all of the big events of my college life, in fact, took place in this lovely building.  

This is the side window that greeted me whenever I looked up from my music as I practiced piano.  As you can tell, I had a lot of fun with my camera while most people were at the stinky football game.

This is the hallway between my piano professor's office, and my voice teacher's office.  I always loved how the afternoon light filtered in through the window outside the busy practice rooms.  

I took many, many more pictures of places that were important to me, but I won't make you suffer through any more.  Sadly, I didn't get to take many pictures of important people I was with, because a lot of my time there was spent singing with them (and I wouldn't have it any other way).  I had a super great time walking around campus with my friend Brian and his wife, Carissa. We had such a good time remembering all the special, every day places from our college years.  I'll leave you with one more image, a place I definitely visited EVERYDAY  my mailbox.  6963 College Lane.  We all waited anxiously for a slip of paper in our mailbox that told us to pick up a package at the counter in the mailroom.  Boxes were ALWAYS a good thing in college.