Change

Today I received the latest issue of the Gustavus Quarterly which is the alumni magazine from my alma mater. There is an article at the beginning of the magazine about the renovations to the Anderson Social Science Center. It doesn't sound like they're tearing the whole thing down and replacing it but they are making serious renovations to it.

In my four years as a History major (with minors in Women's Studies and Sociology) I spent a LOT of time in the Social Sciences building. I loved that building. It was incredibly quirky and if you weren't familiar with the building you could get quite lost in there. If I'm not mistaken it had once been a library and therefore certain staircases only went to certain areas of the building (i.e. the "stacks" or storage areas of the former library). You might think it would be easy to take any staircase and go to any floor but it didn't work that way.

I'm sad to see that they are making changes to the building and that some of the quirkiness might be disappearing. On the other hand it was one of the older buildings on campus and definitely in need of an update.

A lot of the school has changed since I graduated there 10 years ago. In March 1998, when I was a junior, a terrible tornado went through the town of St. Peter and wreaked incredible damage to the school. The damage from the tornado resulted in the school building a fancy new student union, cafeteria and even some new dorms. It's weird to see so much of the school change but I certainly don't expect life to stand still either.

Life moves on but I enjoy taking out my memories of college and brushing them off now and then. I'm not living in the past, but gosh darn it, I don't want things to change either. I have great memories of that place and I'm proud the school continues to develop and grow and change, but....

Can't I have it both ways?