Abilene makes me miss college

I have been out of college for almost 3 years now, yet every time I go to Abilene, TX where I attended Hardin-Simmons University, I am reminded of all the wonderful people and memories that filled my life for 4 years.

I only have two high school friends that I keep in touch with, but the rest of my good friends are the girls that I met in college. These are the girls that I have formed lasting friendships with.

I remember freshman year and my fondest memories were of pledging Tri Phi and going to Formal in Dallas and rooming with Kasha and Blair. I would also spend most of my nights on the 4th floor of Behrens dorms in Amber and Amelia's room with those two as well as Kelly and Stephanie Boozer, who I called "T-Dog." Then there was of course the night that I wrecked the car that I shared with Abby and I turned to Kelly for advice knowing that she herself had been in more car wrecks than she had fingers on her hand. One night Amber, T-Dog, and I went to IHOP to study for Strickland's class and got pretty much nothing done. We gave up and instead went and bought shoe polish and went around shoe polishing the cars in the parking lot of the boys dorm. It was the day before Easter weekend so we drew Easter eggs and bunnies and wrote corny phrases like "Hop your way home."

Sophomore year we lived in an even better dorm, Ferguson. It had private rooms and suites and just looked nicer and cleaner. I shared a corner suite with Abby on the 2nd floor. Blair lived next to us in a private room. Down the hall was Amber, Amelia, and Brynn each in their own private rooms. Across the hall lived Hannah, and down from her was Kelly and Bobcat in a corner suite and then Landra in a private room. The rest of Tri Phi was spread out. The best memories of sophomore year were Sing practice (Gangster's Paradise), going to Anson Lights and McCaulley Gym because they were supposedly haunted, staying with Blair and her parents for a week, formal in San Antonio with Rachel Frazier (now Stewart), rapping to Eminem with Blair, and riding bikes with Kelly all over Abilene in the middle of the night.

That summer I lived with Abby and Rachel in an apartment on Bruce Way. I spent most of that summer either with Kelly and Blair videoing everything and everyone around Abilene and throwing water balloons at people from Kelly's car which we actually wrecked during our water balloon incident. We call it our water balloon scandal. We hydroplaned into a parked car because we were trying to get away from another car chasing us who we had previously thrown balloons at. I also spent that summer with Cassie Darby. I was with her the night she became a vegetarian. If you had seen the ham she almost ate you would never eat meat again either.

At the end of the summer, before my Junior year, I moved into one of the campus apartments with Abby, Blair, and Cassie. The day we moved in I met a very handsome boy named Bryan in the parking lot who was working on the HSU rec team for the summer and about to move out of the campus apartments. The best memories of that year were of course Sing practice again, intramural softball, the best formal in Oklahoma City, Rachel getting engaged and her lingirie party, and of also hanging out with the Bryan from the parking lot I had met earlier in the year.

The summer after my Junior year was probaby one of the best summers of my life! Rachel's wedding was in May in Shreveport, LA! We had a road trip with Krissie and Deborah! Cassie and I were literally joined at the hip. We mostly spent our evenings over at Ryan Feerer's house with Mandi and some of the Rocketboys. We told ghost stories, went to shows, played sardines over at Chad and Seth's house, and went to Dallas for a Rocketboy concert which is where Ryan and Cassie fell in love and a little romance unraveled! If I wasn't with Cassie at Ryan's, we were with Blair and Abby at the apartment. We went to a Rangers game for our birthday and on our way there Blair got a call from an old friend named David Smith. It wasn't much longer before she herself was involved in her own fairytale romance.

My senior year was spent with Cassie and Abby of course , as well as Mandi, Kristen, and Ericka. We had slumber parties at Cassie's house after the fair, Sing practice again, Halloween date function (Bryan was my date), Formal in Austin on Lake Travis, Kristen's engagement and lingirie party, Mandi's surprise birthday, music videos, dance videos, and videos of everyone doing the "worm," Landra's bachelorette party in Dallas with Kelly, Landra and Jeff's wedding, and also Bryan and I kept hanging out every chance we had. That summer Kristen got married in Dallas, Cassie, Abby, and I spent most of our days at the pool when Abby and I weren't working on the Rec team, and Bryan moved to Connecticut to do mission work in August. He called every single day! Mandi, Ericka, Stephanie, Amelia, Brynn, Amber, Abby and I graduated in December and that February Bryan and I started dating! It was a great way to end my college career.

Looking back at each year, each semester, and each summer of college I can honestly say that I feel as if I lived it to the fullest! If there is a time in my life where I could go back to relive I would have to say it would be those four years. But I am so glad to know that I still have the memories and the friendships of these years so that I will never forget one some of the greatest times in my life!