peace......in knowing you "can" always go back.....mostly

20 years.  How did 20 years go by so quickly?24 years ago I was given the incredibly gift of attending the University of Dayton for my undergraduate studies.  For those who do not know, UD (the "original" UD for my Detroit friends) is a small private, Catholic, Marianist College located in Dayton, OH.  It has a small, quaint, beautiful campus with architecturally lovely old world buildings, and is filled with the friendliest group of students and faculty you will meet anywhere.Don't believe just me!  Ask any graduate why they loved their UD experience.  Was it the fantastic championship football team? No.  But, yes...they do have a football team.  Was it the Nationally recognized elite undergraduate education received?   No.  But, wow...the academic standards are by FAR more stringent than when I attended.  While academics and athletics and indeed important in deciding on an academic institution, it was indeed the friendly campus that sold me, and resoundingly countless others, on attending.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/05/their-students-love-these_n_2076802.html#slide=1719033Going back after 20 years since graduation, so much of the campus has changed with fantastically beautiful new buildings, gardens, and student housing.  But the friendly, say hello to all you pass through campus, and welcome strangers to your porch party (literally, that still happens) persists.What I learned this past weekend about "yes...you can go back ("mostly" to come later)":

• 20 years doesn't erase the memories, or connections you had with people while in college.  Few minutes after the proverbial "what've you been up to the past 20 years" and you're right back with the silly banter that existed so long ago.
• Milano's Deli still has delicious sub sandwiches, even if it is a gigantic restaurant now rather than a ridiculously small mostly 2 am take out routine from years gone by so long ago.
• Pine Club was yummy and fun to go to when we (a) didn't have parents who had to pay and (b) had our own money to pay for dinner.
• Staying on campus was a great option.  Ok, we didn't stay in the freshman dorms (sigh of relief!) and stayed in newer student housing that "might" be nicer than some of my own house, but hey..saying we stayed in "student housing" makes it sound like we were slumming it.  Shhh....it's a secret.
• People who were funny, interesting, kind, and fun still are! I so enjoyed catching up with people and wonder how we ever lost touch?  Hmmm.....
• Walking/running through campus with all the memories of my college years but the wisdom of my post college years makes me really wish that I could've appreciated the experience more when I was there.
• "Shot-gunning" beers is way more funny to watch as your 42-year-old friends attempt (and a few successfully do) then it was as a college student!

The "mostly" part....that I could've skipped.....

• Drinking beers while back on campus doesn't mean you have to drink what college students drink.  Our taste buds don't exit our tongues as we walk onto campus!
• Never, ever buy "food" from the student housing store that sell more beverages than food items.  If there is a layer of dusk on the box, and they actually no longer make that box of noodles.....skip it.  Never, ever should there be dust on a box of food.  Or rust on a can.
• Tim's Bar is an experience that I need not repeat.  Done.  Unless you're a co-ed, I'm not sure what the allure is anymore.  I'm cool with slumming it from time to time, but there are limits.
• People who weren't kind, polite, or others-centered, still aren't.  Having a fellow '93 grad dump beer all over my arm, albeit unpleasant, wasn't as annoying as seeing him look at me, seeing what he did, and then looking away with not so much as a "I'm sorry"..... Oh yes, now I remember why I couldn't stand you in college...Once an insensitive jerk....always an insensitive jerk.  Yes, I'm being kind.  One would think 20 years would've taught someone manners but clearly not so much.
• No one should allow 42 year olds to stay up past midnight, run a 5k early in the morning and then repeat the whole process all over again.  I was a disaster yesterday and still feel like a foggy-slug.

Overall, I'm so incredibly grateful for the fun walk down memory lane.  I had wished my best friend Erin would've been there (she knows), but hope that next time it won't take me 20 years to visit Kathleen and Mimi (I am especially grateful for the two of you!), my Theta Phi Alpha sisters, my fellow UD grads and a campus I still dearly love.Quote...oh so fitting for a weekend filled with friendship....."Friendship....is not something you learn in school.  But if you haven't learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven't learned anything." Muhammad AliPeace and Happy Monday......