I was walking around campus the other day, thinking about how many
things have changed since our freshman year. Surf n’ Joes and Salsa
Rico have been replaced with more hip chains like Red Mango and
Starbucks. What used to be a free parking lot at the library has turned
into a study spot for $2.00 an hour.
Diane Geppi Aikens
Field went from being the main sports field to a place for club sports
and kickball tournaments, overshadowed by the new and improved Ridley
Athletic Complex. Nicholas the Greyhound, who was frequently leashed
around Loyola’s campus, hit his canine retirement and no longer frolics
around the quad. Donnelly Science Center has been redesigned, renovated
and finished, filled with new labs I never have and never will make use
of.
We entered the school as undergraduates of Loyola College, and we will leave as alumni of Loyola University.
A wave of goose bumps overcame me, and I got scared for a minute.
Do I have to go around campus with a video camera so I can look back
and remember how Loyola was in this moment? Will I come back in a year,
or five years, or ten years and hardly recognize where I spent four of
the best years of my life?
I continued my walk, nearing the hot spot of the quad. I waved
hello to a girl from my lacrosse team. I stopped to talk to one of my
roommates for a few minutes. I smiled at an old professor. I said “hi”
to a boy in one of my class groups. I slapped five with a good friend.
Soon enough, my goose bumps were replaced by nostalgia. These
people, these incredible people are who really matter when looking back
on it all. They always tell you that things come full circle during
your senior year and “they,” whomever they might be, are right.
Over these last few days of my college career, I am tempted to
climb to the top of the chapel and scream out “THANK YOU” to everyone
I’ve crossed paths with these last four years. Old friends and new, you
will be the memory I have of this school.
Instead of recalling the new location of the study abroad office,
I’ll remember the friend I lived in Amsterdam with for five months.
Instead of remembering how Primo’s looked before it became Iggy’s Market, I’ll remember the people who I can sit at a table with for three hours without a second of silence.
Instead of missing the OJ
that used to flow from Surf N’ Joes, I’ll miss the friends I have from
Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Connecticut, California and
perhaps even New Jersey, who aren’t a 20-minute drive from my New York
abode. Instead of wondering when Loyola will build a football team,
I’ll wonder if everyone I met over the past four years misses our time
at Loyola as much as I do.
Loyola, you may change your name, you may change your frame, but
you will never change the people who came. Mom and dad, thank you for a
$200,000 more than well spent. My fellow classmates and friends, never
change.
