Beginnings

The very first day of college; can you remember the feeling? Excitement was HIGH, nervousness abounded, but you couldn’t let it show because you were the epitome of cool; a college student.

Thankfully, on my first day of college in August 1998, I had made two friends by the first day of classes and didn’t have to sit in Arch 101 alone; Lane and Chris, my “first friends.” We sat near the middle, eyeing up everyone else in the room. Little did we know they would fast become our family, sharing triumphs and coffee breaks and late night shenanigans.

I recall Dean Marlene Davis’ welcoming speech telling us to “look around at the other students in the room. Some of you will become business partners, some won’t make it to graduation, some of you will become husband/wife...” At the mention of that last bit I remember looking around at the boys in the room...these boys? Really? Weird, I don’t even know them...and one of them might be my soul mate?

How funny it is to me that Dean Davis’ words came true exactly 10 years later. How funny it is to me that my future husband was in front of me all that time...in all of my classes, asking me for spelling help when we were writing papers, living on the same college campus, yet we were on different paths during those years. How happy I am that our paths finally converged right before graduation and we fell for each other!

Sometimes I still walk in to the living room or past the kitchen and glimpse Ethan...and think “hey, that’s Ethan from architecture school, what’s he doing in my kitchen?”

Happy one year anniversary to my best friend and the person I admire most! I am thankful for you every day.

Strong Hall Memories (aka Freshman-Sophomore year shenanigans)

The University of Tennessee has closed the dorm hall where I lived my 1st & 2nd years in college. It is one of the oldest dorms on campus, had no air conditioning, was haunted, was a bit of a walk across campus/up-hill both ways in the snow to get to...but it was charming. And it felt special, not like the shoebox rooms everyone else had. It had real wood furniture, and furnaces, and an authentic cage elevator that I can honestly say I used only a dozen times because it was notorious for getting stuck. Many of the room layouts were different floor to floor, and there were “hidden” study rooms and random private bathrooms tucked in to various corners. Some of the bathrooms even had tubs! Can you imagine.

It is great luck that I even got to live in Strong Hall...I was slated for Clement, I believe. Yikes! No-limit Clement (why did we call it that? Oh right, because it was “ghetto”). But then on the first day of Freshmen orientation I met happy, bubbly Lane who was a fellow architecture major, and she convinced me to be her roomie in Strong so we wouldn’t get stuck with randoms. It was one of the best decisions I have ever made, mostly because Lane and our unbeknown-to-us-future-suite mate Melanie make up 90% of my most happy, hilarious, spontaneous memories from college. For real. We moved in early (thanks to sorority rush & the Pride of the Southland Marching Band) and had 2 days of freedom in Strong Hall running through the halls, switching out for the best furniture, and sweltering in the late summer Tennessee heat. And giggling. Lots of giggling.

Coming home from class, crossing the Cumberland Avenue bridge there is a peak in the bridge where I could see directly in to our third floor window. Sometimes I’d see Lane lip-syncing to Celine Dion, or Melanie with her trombone. But not matter what, it felt like coming home.

Many of the other past residents feel sentimental about Strong Hall too. Read their memories here (some go waaaaay back).

And lastly, you too can own a piece of the memories! The University is auctioning off all of the dorm furniture! It makes me happy and super nostalgic to look at these pictures. My only bummer is that you have to be there to pick up the items you “win” on a certain date. I seriously wish I could buy the entire lot for my re-purposed furniture hobby/dream idea. If anyone in the Knox area wants to volunteer to pick up my items I will pay you in excess dorm furniture!