Homecoming 2010

It has been ten years since I graduated from Austin College. I went up to Sherman for the day on Saturday to celebrate with my fellow classmates who graduated in 2000. So much has changed about college life in 10 years. Our class attended college without iPods or laptops or cell phones or texting or Facebook - we were barely using email. We would use landlines to make phone calls and visit popular places on campus to find one another. Unfortunately, the weather was crummy on Saturday (tons of rain) but we all still had such a great time together. Lainey and Walker stayed with Ben (and sadly, Lainey was so sick - with fever and some tummy discomfort) but I was able to give the kids big hugs when they awakened Sunday morning. That made me happy because I missed had them!

Amy, Nicole, and Caroline - my college roommates.

During our junior and senior years of college, the four of us lived in a somewhat dilapidated house that was built on a not-so-solid pier and beam foundation. The small house had white siding and blue trim. There was a huge bump in the middle of the living room floor that we called "Mount Porter" and a washing machine that frequently flooded the laundry room and kitchen. We had a neighbor - Victor - who once used an extension cord to steal our electricity. Yet we still liked him. We had multiple fans and foil on the windows to keep our small, poorly-circulated house somewhat cool on hot days (or maybe it was just my room?). I had to walk through Nicole's bedroom (the former dining room) or Amy's bedroom to get to the bathroom. We climbed a metal fence to get to campus and would occasionally get injured. (We were thrilled on the random occasion that the gate was actually ajar...I think we even purposely left it that way at times...we would make it look like it was closed but it was actually open.) Our house had one teensy bathroom, temperamental plumbing, no dishwasher, and the best porch in Sherman. We inherited the house from some older girls in our sorority, and after we left, it went to some younger girls in our sorority. It eventually was demolished (much to my parents' delight...I think they were worried the entire time we lived there) and the lot is now empty. I think it's now used for tailgating. I wouldn't trade the memories that the four of us (and all of our friends) made at our little house on Porter Street for anything. If only those walls could talk!

lunch at Vitina's (the best sandwiches EVER)

Anne (a.k.a. Peeps), Emily, me, Amy, Caroline, Nicole

Kristi, Kourt, and Nicole at Cellarman's Pub

(This is where we weathered out the crazy rainstorm.)

Caroline, Ann B (a.k.a. Bui), April, and Amy

Amy's sweet 8-week-old baby, Charlotte, snoozing in her carrier that is hanging from a foosball table in Cellarman's. She was such a trooper. This picture cracks me up! :)

Emily, Kristi, and Kourtny

(roommates who lived next door to a slab of concrete with exposed pipes...another popular hangout our senior year)

the girls (and Jack, Amy's husband) at City Limits

(The prices are the only thing on the menu that have changed in the 10 years since I last ate here. Sherman still has smoking/non-smoking sections in their restaurants. It's so unusual to see that nowadays!)

proof that I graduated :)

Our school is amazing. It holds countless memories and experiences that none of us will ever forget, not to mention friendships that will last for years and years to come. Austin College is a small community. There are not a lot of students so one ends up really getting to know his/her classmates and the upper- and lowerclassmen and the professors and administration and the staff. I saw many old friends and acquaintances, and amazingly, no one has really changed. We've all grown up a bit, and it seems as though everyone is living all over the country and the world doing amazing things, but overall, everyone is still the same. It was a great day filled with lots of reminiscing and many meaningful conversations and while the campus has changed, it's comforting to know that so much is still the same.