I tried to tell him, but I knew...he would have to find
it out for himself. The day we drove onto the campus, he said “I’m home, mom.”
“This is it.” “I’ve found my college.” The magic of Ohio University in Athens,
Ohio had already set in.
This place and time… engulfs you. You live and breathe the air, walk the cobblestones and trek the hills. The trees are wide and strong and canopy the College Green. The red brick that is consistent at each corner offers a strong steady presence. The pathways are looping…you travel them for hours, days, months and years, over and over again and never feel like you’re repeating yourself.
NO where on earth is place and person so equally connected. You know you’re somewhere special. You can’t quite define it. You can never really describe the feeling to anyone. Your friends, well, they go to other colleges, they wouldn’t understand.
He graduates next week from this magical place. He’ll return from time to time with the hope that same feeling comes back to his senses. But, he’ll realize this was a place and time that can never be matched. He'll know, that while he was there, this person and this place owned each other. There's a part of you that has to let it go. Those who are present live it. Those who return embrace it.
He’ll go back and find it waiting for him, always. Nothing ever changes, yet the people who leave are never the same.
His accomplishments at OU have been many. His friendship
have been plentiful. His voice has soared. His happiness ever apparent.
And Ohio University is now his memory...and now he knows. He is so lucky to have experienced it for himself. And...away he goes...
