Almost 5 months have passed since graduation and not a day goes by that I don't think about my time at Iowa State. Now back in my small town, it doesn't have the hundreds of unrecognizable faces hidden behind sunglasses and headphones — I always found that one person I knew each time I walked from Greek Land to Parks Library. It doesn't look the same way in the fall as it did — students are lounging in their ENO hammocks or sleeping on their backpacks on Central Campus and here — nothing. As a small town girl, it took time, but eventually Iowa State became home.
It is the strangest feeling going back to your college campus post graduation for the first time. The walk is familiar, the campanile still chimes every hour, on the hour and plays your favorite songs at noon, but it's different. You are different. You no longer fit in.
Once you get over the shock that those walking the walk from Greek Land to Parks Library graduate in 2020, you eventually realize that you might not fit in, you might not recognize that one person anymore, but your school will always be the same.
The minute you drive through those beautiful pillars and see Jack Trice all your worries about the adult world faded away. You forget that you have applied for hundreds of jobs with no response. You forget that you have to pay your credit card bill at the end of the month. You forget everything.
The stresses of our lives disappear, even if it only lasts for a moment. We are transported back to the place that we called home for four — or five years. Calling Iowa State 'home' isn't in the past — it still is. Memories flood our hearts and minds transporting us back to some of the best times of our lives.
Although we might be over frat parties — and let's be honest we were over those by the time we turned 21 — and walking from Halloween party to Halloween party scantily dressed, those memories won't soon be forgotten.
5 months out and 100 miles away, I feel most at home when I am on my Alma mater's campus — or at least on Welch Ave. No matter how long or how far we are away, Ames and Iowa State will always have a special place in our hearts. It will always be home.
