Old Haunts, and Familiar Shade

A few days ago I found myself back at my old college campus.  It's a funny thing; you never know were life will take you, until you've looked back at where you've been.

 So far July in Texas has been as hot and dry, as June was wet and soggy.  I could feel every bit of that 95 degree day beating down on me.   As I made my way off the extended "Visitors" parking area, and  nearing the Campus library, I could feel the familiar shade of trees and buildings I hadn't seen in more than a decade.  Over the years new construction had been built, but all of "my buildings" were just where I had left them.   

My business in the registrars office, located the basement of the Library, took only a few minutes.  Left with an hour to kill I took a slow walk to the Arts and Humanities building where I spent most of my college hours.  Looking back, if I had been smart, I would have been a accountant, or a business major.  But, if you've read any of my posting you already know the key word in that statement is "if".  I just had to be a lit major.  With all the trapping of fame and fortune it has brought me.  

The feel of that old A & H building, as I walked it's hall, made me ache for a way to go back in time.  To a place were the future was full of infinite possibilities.  Every hallway, classroom, and alcove were saturated with forgotten memories.  I could feel them as if I were walking through an early morning mist.  They clung to me so tightly that all I had to do was close my eyes and just know that no time had passed, and I was about to be late for Dr. Kratz's class on Western Literary Traditions.  For a few fleeting minutes the weight of my small world was lifted, and I could enjoy memories of a time that I never really could appreciate with out the distance of a decade.  I left that day with some great rediscovered memories, and the confirmed knowledge that I would have made a terrible accountant.

One bit of good news I learned in my visit; was that my favorite professor is now the Dean of the A&H department.   He was a fantastic teacher with the ability to transform dry books into epic tales that challenged the imagination, and opened the mind.  I don't think you could call me his most successful student , but he did help me to see literature in a deeper way.  It was through him that I learned the importance of a really good story. 

  Thanks Dr. K. 
                        
      ( I bet you don't remember Odessa Smith!)