It's Good to Go Home Again

For the first time in almost exactly five years, I ventured back to my Alma Mater Saturday.

I can think of a few specific things that kept me away for so long, but it was mainly time and distance. I graduated six months before my friends. I went back a few times after I moved to Evansville, but eventually adult life took over and I just never took the time to visit again.

Nearly every year my friend Lindsay invites me to go back to speak at Senior Saturday. She is in the Scripps Alumni Association and helps organize the event. This year I finally agreed and I am glad I did.

I decided to just go for the day. The drive was not that bad. I hit the road at 7 a.m., drove east across Kentucky until I got to Huntington, drove along the river and crossed into some familiar territory about two hours later.

The most unique part of my college experience was working at the TV station. We covered 36 counties and I saw many of them, including the two I drove through before hitting Athens. the minute I crossed into Ohio and saw the two river towns, Gallipolis and Pomeroy where I did many stories including Ohio River Flooding and other local issues, I felt like I was home again.

Athens has changed a lot. The former student center is now a construction zone. The new student center, which has been around for about four years now, is like a museum. Word is it has the only working escalator in the county. I believe that. There are a lot of new apartments, a lot of new businesses, which irks me a bit, but the feel of Ohio University is still there.

Such a large part of me is that school. It's a life experience I couldn't have gotten anywhere else and I am so grateful for all the good and bad. So much so that I hope to make another trip back with Greg before our wedding. He had a good college experience too, but it was in his hometown. He lived with his parents the whole time. That's a far cry from the times I had in the appalachian college town for hours from my home. I feel like he needs to at least get some idea of what it was like before we continue our next journey.

Of course my purpose for going back was not about me, but about helping future classes. I got to graduating Broadcast Journalism students about what the business is really like. I was glad to help and I hope I did. They have some talented students about to join the news world. I wish them the best of luck, but I hope they don't take the jobs I apply for ;)