Union University

Reconnecting to My College Life

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On Thursday I spent the afternoon at Union University.  I’ve visited the campus a couple times since I graduated in December 2009, but it’s always been on a weekend, so I never got to spend significant time with people from my school days.

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This trend almost continued.  I went to the Alumni Services office where I worked for three years, and four of the three desks were empty.  Offices surrounding the main area were full of people I didn’t know.  Luckily Sally was still around, and we sat and talked for an hour about how all the other staff that I knew had left for one reason or another.  It was pretty depressing, honestly, and I was sad to have missed the chance to see Katrina, Stephanie, and all the others.   Continue reading →

Oh Hey, Friday! #6 MEMORIES FROM UNION UNIVERSITY

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It’s another round of the Oh Hey, Friday! link-up from September Farm and 5 on Friday from A. Liz Adventures!  

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today’s five:  MEMORIES FROM UNION UNIVERSITY
Since I spent yesterday wandering around Union’s campus, meeting with old professors and coworkers and generally immersing myself into nostalgia, this topic seemed obvious!

1|  creating a Condoleezza Rice greeting dance for the 2009 Scholarship Banquet

I worked as a student aid at the Alumni Office for three years, and our biggest event was the yearly Scholarship Banquet.  Each fall someone famous came to speak to people who paid thousands of dollars for the privilege of participating….and me, a lowly aid, who went for free.  I would get dressed up (in the same black-and-white dress each year), go early to set up, and direct rich people around before getting my picture taken with the Famous Person.  One year Peyton Manning came to speak, and I walked him backstage with my boss.  He tripped on the stairs in front of me, and the enormous joy I felt from having better balance in heels than a millionaire football superstar was overwhelming.

But this is about Condoleezza Rice.  My senior year, I managed to get a job at the Alumni Office for my friend Stephanie.  At the Scholarship Banquet that year, we were assigned the task of greeting the U.S. Secretary of State at the door and escorting her to a particular room.  This job involved waiting for at least half an hour, so naturally Stephanie and I made up a dance with which to greet her.  There was a lot of spinning and 8-counts involved.  We were in the middle of rehearsing it when her security opened the door, so we scurried into professionalism just in time to shake her hand and walk her where she needed to go. Continue reading →

Remembering the 2008 Tornado

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On February 5, 2008, an EF-4 tornado blew straight through Union University.  I was on campus that night, and the experience remains the one time in my life that I legitimately feared I was about to die.  Thirteen students were trapped in the rubble, and fifty-one were taken to the hospital.  The scope of the devastation was enormous, but God, for whatever reason, kept us safe.  Every February 5th I try to take time to acknowledge what happened so that I remember both the brevity of life and the protection of God.  The words that follow (with a few grammatical corrections) are what I wrote in a blog post a couple days after the tornado hit.

Around 6:30 the tornado sirens started going off, but we didn’t pay any attention. That happens often, living in Tennessee, and I was planning on starting my homework while the roomies watched American Idol. Brittany Cox ran over to our room through the rain and sirens, and we were just sitting around chilling. Then Whitney’s phone rang, and she all of a sudden said, “We’re leaving, come on!”  Continue reading →