BYU, Through and Through

I wrote this between practices for the recent Living Legends Reunion show I had the honor of participating in a few weeks ago.  It’s more a journal entry than a blog post, but since I typed it up on my computer, I had might as well post it so it will end up somewhere other than my hard drive.

I never really thought that I would feel this way about BYU.  Especially not when I left.  In those days I was ready to move on to the next chapter in my life, the next great adventure. 
Today as I walk through campus, I am not the same woman who lived in these walkways.  Now I am a mother, a thirty-something community member of another town. 
so many times I have stood at the kitchen sink, cooking meals and cleaning runny noses, certain that there is no “me” but this woman with spatula and tissues in hand. 
But being here today, in the HFAC where I spent so much of my BYU career, the old me is stirring.  She remembers hours of practicing and performing in the women’s chorus,  midnight rehearsals for Living Legends.  I guess there was studying in there too, but she tries not to think too much about that.  There were days I would wander the building just to soak in the art and music seeping from every wall. 
This is her home, the place where she realized that life holds more doors than she ever hope to open in a lifetime.  That didn’t stop her from getting to as many as she could while she was here. 
Life is full of phases.  The HFAC itself reminds me gently in the photo above that this is all a part of "Growing Up."  Ironic, isn't it how a well placed piece of art can complete the theme of an entire day.
Yes, today I am a mom.  Today I love, teach, guide, cook and clean.  But someday I will come back to these walls.  There is so much more the me that is “she” still has to teach me.