Remembrances.

I came to visit my university today.

I was a student there for 8 long and rewarding semesters. I cherished my time there by living it to the fullest extent I was able. I submersed myself almost entirely in the experience.

I did not realize, even last summer, when I wrote The (Un)common Room, how much this place and these people impacted my life. Coming back here now, for a day, before I travel overseas and abandon home and normalcy in favour of a great new adventure, I realize something powerful. I am a child of these halls, and fields, and walkways. I am a citizen of this awkward crowd of wayward students and warring dreams. I am a Mercerian.

Alma Mater

I.
On the city’s western border
Reared against the sky
Proudly stands our Alma Mater
As the years roll by

Forward ever by thy watchword
Conquer and prevail
Hail to thee, O Alma Mater!
Mercer, Hail, all Hail!

Cherished by thy sons and daughters
Mem’ries sweet shall throng
Round our hearts, O Alma Mater
As we sing our song.

Forward ever by thy watchword
Conquer and prevail
Hail to thee, O Alma Mater!
Mercer, Hail, all Hail!

I remember singing this song, holding a flimsy, paper-covered candle standing on the quad. Trying to find myself among 500 students yearning for a place and a purpose. I knew then what my place and purpose were. I knew why I was there and what I was to do during my stay.

Four years and thousands of lessons in history, math, music, engineering, logic, science, and life later, I know far more, and far less, than I did when I first arrived.

I find myself between carreers, between selves, between lives. In the awkward limbo of not-knowing. It is a different place than the ones with which I am familiar.

And yet, over the past year, I have made this place my home, and even it now becomes something I know, something I do, something I am.

"if you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice."

New choices soon, and new adventures too.