8 Minute Memoir, Day 2: I Don't Remember

(circa 2006)

It's been 6 and a half years since I graduated from Northern Illinois University and we moved out of DeKalb.  Over half a decade...  and I realize a visit to my old alma mater may be in order.  I'm also beginning to understand that I am forgetting those four years already, the sights and sounds and classes and friendships, late nights and overwhelming sadness and horror and some of the highest highs.  Man, I guess that's growing up.

So maybe on my next day off, or next week, I'll hop in my car and take a little ride.  Get off at Interstate 88 at Annie Glidden Road and drive past our old favorite restaurants, the studio apartment my good friend K. lived in during our sophomore year, the complex containing the townhouse I lived in junior year and the apartment that Tom and I moved into when I was a senior.  I'll park the car and walk around campus, taking deep breaths and just... remembering.  Sitting here now, I have all of these memories bubbling to the surface and surely not enough time to write them all down.

Suffice to say, I am grateful not only for the education that I got at NIU, but also the experiences I found myself lucky to have.  I did a lot of growing up and figuring out life (sometimes still having more questions than answers).  Even though some of it was really hard--as it should be, I suppose--I also loved so many of the hours I spent reading and writing and exploring and growing.  When I think about those four years, I am filled with both nostalgia and excitement.  I think a visit to campus is just what I need.