IUP For Four Years

Today is my off-day for the week as far as training on the bike goes and I have some time that I feel I might as well use writing. I spent last night writing a paper and after that was taken care of the amazing weather was just too much to resist. I could not allow myself to sit in my apartment so I went out for a walk around IUP's campus with my camera. You should all know by now that I'm no photographer and it is just something I like to do. There are many instances I wish I could capture the way light is playing off buildings or simply when I see something unexpectedly delightful. I haven't worked up the guys to asking people if I could take pictures of their delightfulness just yet. I might just want to leave that to the professionals. In any case, walking around IUP's campus last night got me to think a lot more about my past four years here than I have on any bike ride of late.

It got me thinking about how when I first visited this school I was not keep to go here. Indiana University of Pennsylvania's lot was not fitting with my conception of what a college campus was to look like. Naive, sure, but this really was the only campus I visited other than GMU's in my hometown. Regardless, I have been here four years.

Don't think I don't wonder about what I could have done differently here. I went into college with the idea that you make it what it is. I am amazed at the friends I've made and I will absolutely miss them. I have been lucky enough to have picked up the beautiful sport of cycling here and I will always keep that in my life. Mistakes are taken as lessons and knowledge is relative. I of course hope I haven't missed opportunities and I an really trying to make the most of the time I have left here. I will be moving on shortly and such is life. No need to linger on the "what could've beens." 

A lot of these new buildings around were not there when I started at IUP. I remember my first day of classes...

I was at this very spot I was lost and frantically trying to avoid being late for classes. I looked up the campus map and thought I had a pretty good idea of where buildings were and what I was to be looking for. Keith Hall had my very first class and I could not, for the life of me, find it. I consulted that on-campus, campus map and was still at a terrified loss. My head on the swivel, I searched for a kind soul that might point me in the right direction. Instead, the chance I took was to ask someone just as lost as me. In my mind, at least I wouldn't feel as embarrassed asking for directions from someone who looked to be in the same aforementioned despair am I. He was looking for Keith too. Upon re-consulting our campus map we wondered if Keith Hall was actually right in front of us. There was no sign from our vantage point that we were right at the steps of our destination, but eventually my memory fades as I step into the building and my collegiate endeavors have officially begun.

Thanks for reading.