More proof God knows what He is doing

Yesterday I went to my 10 year college reunion. It was a wonderful day. My relationship with Elms College, a small Catholic liberal arts school in Chicopee, MA., began when I was seven years old. They used to have (and in a different incarnation, they still do) academic programs for kids in the summer. I took an art class that year. That September my sister started as a Freshman. My mother and I would go to the campus after I got out of school and wait to pick her up. I would run in the fields and play under the trees, creating castles in the sky. Over the years, I continued to go to the summer programs and continued to enjoy the sense of peace that was there.

When it was time to choose a college, however, I wanted to go anywhere but there. As far as I was concerned, I was a high school valedictorian with a ticket to anywhere. My parents said it was Elms or nowhere. The Elms offered me a nearly full scholarship and cemented my fate. So I went kicking and screaming, determined to make the best of it. I had a good four years. I had wonderful professors who cared about their students. I learned alot about academic things (much of which I no longer remember) and alot about myself (which thankfully has stayed with me). I also met two amazing people who have changed my life forever - my best friend Stephanie and my husband Bernie.

When I graduated something in me sensed I wasn't done there. Turns out my intuition was right. Late that summer, I would be offered a part-time position as a secretary in the Continuing Education Office. That would turn into a full-time position as Assistant to the Director of Weekend College and Non-credit Programs. Over the next five years I would have numerous titles and even more job descriptions, but I loved it. I worked with incredible people, and I truly came to love this place. It became home. I would take advantage of their free tuition for employees program to earn a graduate degree in theology and would defend my Masters thesis while I was eight months pregnant with David! I dropped down to part-time work after he was born, and would ultimately leave when I found out I was expecting Isaac. While I may have left, my heart hasn't, however.

Elms is doing such incredible things now. It was great to be there yesterday, among familiar faces, to see all the changes, and to hear from some members of the other honor classes how it was there 30, 40, 50, and 60 years ago! What a proud tradition that school has and it is only getting better with age. I'm so glad to have been part of it. Part of me hopes that some day I get to go back in some capacity. I'm so glad that my parents made me go! God really does know what He is doing!