Today is the last day of our 125th celebration BlogAbout. We have asked alumni and friends of OBU to share their thoughts and memories about Ouachita through their blogs. Today’s topic is “what does OBU mean to you today?”

What a question! It seemed easy as we were brainstorming topics, yet as I ponder that question to actually write about it, it is so big. OBU fills so many parts of my life now.

My college experience was second to none. Amazing memories. My memories from college are some of the best of my life.

I have friends from that time who are like family. The friendships I made during college are different from any I’d made before or since. Living together and going through the college experience bonds students in a unique way. But even more than that, those bonds seem stronger at OBU. Maybe it’s living in a small town where we made a lot of our own fun. Maybe it preparing for Tunes. Maybe its our common belief in our savior. Maybe it’s all of it combined. You know those friends that you might not see for a while, but when you do it’s like you just saw them yesterday and pick up move right along without missing a beat? That’s how my OBU friends are.

Mike Huckabee was here in chapel last week and he talked about meeting Ouachita graduates all over the world and how there is just a common bond there. An instant kinship. I feel it too.

But that was all from my college days. Now, OBU is ingrained into every aspect of my life. My husband, a history professor, and I both work at OBU. We count it as a privilege to have the opportunity to serve here. He has served here going on six years. I have am in my third year. Unless God has different plans, we hope to be here when our kids are in college and beyond.

Our friends are on this campus. Our children learned to ride bikes and roller blade and rip sticks on this campus. Our children have almost 1600 big brothers and sisters in the Ouachita Tigers.

We work here and we play here. We are invested in the lives of the students, faculty and staff alike.

It’s home.