30...Really???: ACU Homecoming ~ 15-Year Reunion

1998 sounds like forever ago. But I often feel like I'm still that girl that just graduated from college. It pretty much blew my mind that it was already time for our 15-year reunion back in October. This was the first time we had been back on campus for Homecoming in quite awhile and the first time to go back with Will.

It was a really sweet weekend (with plenty of stressful moments...which is impossible not to have when traveling with young kids), but I loved (almost) every moment of showing the boys around. I loved all of the questions about college that Tate asked and getting to show them both so many special places.

I don't even fully know how to articulate what I feel for this place. Yes part of the college mystique is that it typically occurs at a pivotal time in a young person's life. The time when they come into their own person. But then combine that with an outstanding college education, uncountable great memories, and the makings of a few special lifelong friends...that place feels sacred.

Yes, Wade & I drink the purple and white Kool-Aid. We love this place. Of course, it's where we met each other, which is obviously something we're both pretty thankful. But even more than that, it's where a foundation of our worldview really took shape. That is what drew us to each other and also bonded us with lifelong friends. So fun to think back now and realize how much we were just beginning to figure out.

So back to the Homecoming Weekend. :) Tate loved the parade. Will tolerated most of it.

Ran into an old friend...who hasn't changed at all! :)

But what Will did LOVE, and I mean LOVE, was the Homecoming Bell. The tradition is that over Homecoming Weekend, the Freshmen Class has to keep the bell ringing around the clock. By the time the weekend was over, I'm pretty sure Will had given a couple hours of rest to several freshmen. He couldn't walk by there and not ring the bell.

We enjoyed pulling a "Rick Enright" and driving around to a few of the places we each lived. :)

(We didn't get shots of the two University Park apartments we each lived in and Wade's duplex.)

We brought Tate with us to the Homecoming football game. It was a fun game, but I am SOOO glad to hear about the new on-campus stadium that is in the works. Poor, poor Shotwell has seen better days.

We took the boys to the place where it all began. The classroom where we became really good friends and subsequently almost failed a math class together.

And then for the first time, we showed Will the place where his middle name, Cullen, came from. The building where Wade proposed just a few months before we graduated. Clearly Will was impressed. :)

I miss the old GATA Fountain. :(

Of course a big reason for being there was the actual reunion. Oddly enough I only have one picture from that night. It was fun to see friends in person instead of just on Facebook. :) Wade did a great job as the emcee for the night. We loved getting two nights in a row (!) having dinner with Brian, Wade's college roommate, and his wife, Amy. And our kids all had a great time hanging out together. We love being with them any chance we can get because it means there will be much, much laughter. :)

While in town we stayed at what used to be Embassy Suites, but now has a different name. Of course staying in the hotel was a definite highlight for the boys.

I sent this picture to my parents (who always stayed here when they would come visit me in college). I said I'm pretty sure not one single thing has changed since they were staying there 15+ years ago.