Taylor Elementary, August 1994. I walked up the sidewalk to my kindergarten classroom. My parents walked on either side of me. My backpack hung on my small shoulders and I carried my Mickey Mouse lunch box in my right hand. I didn’t know what to expect on that first day of kindergarten, but I was nervous. Until I walked into the classroom, saw my best friend Allison White and started gluing macaroni onto construction paper.
Abilene Christian University, August 2007. I walked up the stairs in Gardner Hall. My parents walked on either side of me. My backpack hung on my teenage shoulders and I carried my cell phone in my right hand. I didn’t know what to expect on my first day as a college student, but I was nervous. Until I saw my roommate, Emily Hood and we started checking out the guys moving us into our room.
When I think back on the last 17 years of school, I don’t dwell on the tests, the projects or the presentations. Of course, I did learn a thing or two in the classroom; I know proper AP style, how to write an inverted pyramid lede and how to defend accusations of libel. But the biggest lessons learned during my four years at ACU came from relationships.
They came out of late night Taco Bueno trips with Emily Hood and Angela Stornello, early morning runs with Lizzy Spano, a trip to Oxford with 16 fellow JMC majors and Spring Break Campaigns to Boston and Chicago. They came through shindigs at Cair Pairavel, midnight breakfasts at the Villa and my three-person lifegroup at Schlotzsky’s.
They came when I was laughing uncontrollably at Lawson Soward’s jokes, reminiscing on Trevor Cochlin’s porch, and working long hours with Optimist staff members and advisers.
I learned the most meaningful lessons through relationships, not textbooks. And the hardest tests didn’t required Scantrons – they required faith and perseverance.
And that comforts me when I think about the next stage of life, because I’ll no longer use textbooks or Scantrons, and my parents aren’t walking right beside me anymore. I’m setting off into the big world with a passion for journalism.
And the knowledge from a few good friends, and the ability to make more wherever I go.
