University of Dayton - MyLife

It's Time.

The time has come for me to write my farewell blog after a wonderful four years of being a student at the University of Dayton and having the privilege to blog about my life during that time. Even though the shock of graduation has worn off and I have adjusted to life outside of the Ohio bubble, I can't believe it's time for me to post my final blog entry. As I talk to my friends who are headed back to UD for another semester, it's still weird to think that I am not going back to school along with them. Luckily enough, in just a couple weeks, I will be headed to my first official UD alumni event which is taking place here in Phoenix, and I am so thankful for that. It's really exciting to be part of the alumnal chapter of UD and to know that I'm never too far from a UD alumna.

During my time at UD, I participated in many different things. I attended and lead retreats, participated and lead the freshmen orientation program, joined and held a leadership position in a sorority, worked two different campus jobs, adopted a child during Christmas on Campus, lived in all three types of campus housing: dorms, apartments, and houses, played intramural sports, lived in a Marianist Student Community, studied abroad, went on a spring breakout trip, became a lay Marianist...the list goes on. All of these experiences were wonderful and impacted my life in a positive way here at UD and I would recommend each incoming student to experience as many of these as possible during their time at UD.

However, in the end, the lasting memories I have are mainly just the times my friends and I spent sitting on our porch enjoying the nice weather, the times we decided to have late night study parties in our living room with an abundance of coffee and junk food, the times we met on campus in the middle of the day to have a quick lunch in KU or get ice cream in the Galley, the times we walked through campus late at night when it finally was warm again, the times we decided to sled down Stuart Hill during a snowy day, the late night dance parties we had in our living room for study breaks, the pillow fights in the hallway when we all lived in Campus South together, playing pranks on our guy friends for three years straight, or just laughing with each other until our stomachs hurt. These are the things I miss about UD. You can go to college anywhere and receive an education, but at UD it's much more than that. At UD you receive a community. A community of professors, dining hall employees, department secretaries, administrators, Marianist priests, brothers, and sisters, campus ministers, etc. This is why the UD alumni chapters are so strong throughout the entire country. We are a family. To quote one of our most popular cheers at every sporting event: "We are UD."

I hope this small glimpse of my life at UD the past four years through reading these blogs has given readers a sense of who I am and what my college experience has meant to me. I still remember my first campus visit and the priest I encountered in the admissions office while I was waiting to begin my tour. He told me, "Students don't like it here...they love it." Father Matt couldn't have been more right. Thank you UD faculty and staff for making my four years at UD a memory to be treasured and never forgotten.

Aug 13, 2009 6:52 PM Permalink