Normal Schools, Unique Campuses

Today I am grateful for spiritual awakenings that come when I am paying attention and for the sun rising through the trees this morning. I am also grateful for the opportunities we had last week to be on a couple of university campuses.

We enjoyed checking out the campus of Illinois State. My stepson Arthur will soon be starting graduate school there. I love college campuses, the feel they have, and the unique personality each one seems to project. ISU is a large campus, so it was nice to check some of it out on foot. We walked around some, Darcy and I ran on campus one morning, and we drove through it as well. It was quiet at this time of the year, but I could almost imagine the teeming energy that will abound when over 20,000 students start fall classes. Arthur is definitely excited to be a Redbird. I hope he and Alyssa have a positive experience during their time in Normal. (Fun fact: ISU is the oldest public university in Illinois and was first called Illinois State Normal University. Schools that trained teachers used to be called normal schools. That is where Normal, IL got it's unique name.)

New memories await Arthur and Alyssa.

I am an alumna of another normal school, the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, formerly known as Iowa State Teachers College. On our return trip last week, we stopped in Cedar Falls and Darcy, Sam, and I spent some time walking around campus. Some of it had changed in the twenty-five years since I attended there. Some of it was the same. Some of the buildings were new. It was fun to point out to Darcy and Sam the building I had many of my social science classes in, the building I had many of my coaching classes in, the building where I had my education classes, the student union, my dorm and dining center, the routes I traveled to classes, the house I lived in near campus that is now gone, like the rest of the houses on that block. We were able to see inside the UNI-Dome and to drive past the softball diamond where I played. The Campanile in the center of campus looked older, but was still standing proud. (You can view the Campanile and hear the bells on this YouTube video.)  Like me, a proud alum.

Old memories revisited for me.The college atmosphere. The marvel of the quick passage of time. The wish that "if only I could have known then what I know now."

Memories, the passage of time, lessons learned; they are all blessings.

Two normal schools. Two unique campuses. Two fun visits.

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