This weekend, I visited our erstwhile home for the first time since graduation. I'd been to South Bend over the summer, but this weekend I stepped on campus for the first time since May.
What can I say? I ate a KofC steak sandwich, I watched a satisfying football win in the stadium, I closed the Backer at 3. I re-united with a few friends (here's looking at you, Katie S.), I visited the grotto, I drank and ate delicious Greek food at Ari's - no longer Alexander's - Grill (there is a picture of us on the wall). I read the Viewpoint in the Observer (hey, I had a few hours to kill). I stayed in Irish Crossings and walked past Adam's house, aka "the PLS Clubhouse". I strolled by Stonehenge and lay in the grass on South Quad. I looked up at the Main Building and remembered that last silly night when we finally walked up its steps. I basked under a flawless blue sky. I was home, almost.
What made Notre Dame, Notre Dame? You. If you are reading this, it was you. Campus felt half-empty, though full of people, as I wandered its pathways knowing that you were no longer there. Quomodo sedet solo civitas. Our long talks, late-night studying and laughter -- these glad ghosts came lilting back to me. A phrase returned to me: "Quick now, here, now, always--"
We had our now; and henceforth, like so many alumni before us, we are always. So long as any one of us is there, to re-capture for a moment those inter-woven remembrances, we all are. You were with me this weekend, as I lay on South Quad in the sun.
Do you share this sense? No? Find your PLS yearbook on the shelf, or under your bed. Dust it off. Read briefly. Dwell on that last page, those last lines; "The world was all before them." Then close your eyes. Whisper with me, "Quick now, here, now, always—". You will know.
-LC
What can I say? I ate a KofC steak sandwich, I watched a satisfying football win in the stadium, I closed the Backer at 3. I re-united with a few friends (here's looking at you, Katie S.), I visited the grotto, I drank and ate delicious Greek food at Ari's - no longer Alexander's - Grill (there is a picture of us on the wall). I read the Viewpoint in the Observer (hey, I had a few hours to kill). I stayed in Irish Crossings and walked past Adam's house, aka "the PLS Clubhouse". I strolled by Stonehenge and lay in the grass on South Quad. I looked up at the Main Building and remembered that last silly night when we finally walked up its steps. I basked under a flawless blue sky. I was home, almost.
What made Notre Dame, Notre Dame? You. If you are reading this, it was you. Campus felt half-empty, though full of people, as I wandered its pathways knowing that you were no longer there. Quomodo sedet solo civitas. Our long talks, late-night studying and laughter -- these glad ghosts came lilting back to me. A phrase returned to me: "Quick now, here, now, always--"
We had our now; and henceforth, like so many alumni before us, we are always. So long as any one of us is there, to re-capture for a moment those inter-woven remembrances, we all are. You were with me this weekend, as I lay on South Quad in the sun.
Do you share this sense? No? Find your PLS yearbook on the shelf, or under your bed. Dust it off. Read briefly. Dwell on that last page, those last lines; "The world was all before them." Then close your eyes. Whisper with me, "Quick now, here, now, always—". You will know.
-LC
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