Going Home

This past weekend Jackie and I had the honor of being inducted as Fellows at our alma mater, St. Joseph's College.  We were inducted as the result of a sponsorship of two close friends, who were obviously very generous, and we were touched that they thought of us.

The day's event started with mass at the campus chapel (which, while potentially needed repairs/updates, is still very beautiful), and then a luncheon in the student center (along with an open bar).  It was a beautiful day, and not just because of the nice cool 70 degree weather and clear blue skies.  As Jackie and I talked about the day when we got home, we described it as it felt like going home.

Saint Joe is special, for both Jackie and I, on so many levels.  Part of it is our individual growth that we both went through during our years there.  Much of it is the friendships that developed there and continued to the present.  During our visit, the former president of the school stopped by briefly to say hi to both of us, I think surprising both of us that he remembered who we were.  That makes you feel good.  One of our friends was also invited over to one of her former professor's house afterwards, just to talk.  We went and visited, and listened to them talk openly about their lives, and their passions.  For me, these facts speak so much of what makes Saint Joe special.  The smallness of it creates a level of intimacy in those relationships, an intimacy like family.  For our friends, its what binded us together originally, and what gives us a commonality to build upon for our life-long friendships.

Saint Joe has obviously been a special place for Jackie and I as well, and this past Saturday confirms that it remains so.  Saint Joe is where our life began together.  While visiting, we walked through the campus grotto and could reminisce on the many walks we had on campus.  We visited the reflecting pond out near the front of the campus, and both remembered the exact spot where we first talked about getting married.  In the student center was the cafeteria where we shared so many meals together.  It's where our engagement pictures were taken.  Its not only where we found ourselves and we found each other, but discovered who were going to be for the rest of our lives.  Such a discovery is transformational, and Saint Joe will always be an integral part of that transformation and our journey.

"It was the most amazing feeling in the word, to know that something right happened, and to know that it had happened not through luck or command but simply because it was right." - David Levithan

"We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started

And know the place for the first time." -T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets