If you didn’t go to Ohio University, you might get tired of hearing students and alumni calling Athens “the greatest place on Earth,” but you’d understand the sentiment the moment you stepped foot on campus. Athens is the quintessential college town, as OU is a picturesque campus nestled in southeast Ohio, an oasis that allows thousands of young adults to find themselves each and every year.
But still, as I visit the campus having now graduated thirteen years ago, I can’t help but get a slight melancholic feeling as I walk around town, fully aware this town doesn’t hold the same place for me that it once did. This was home to some of the best times of my life, but I had plenty of bad moments as well, as anyone in their early 20s will. College is a place of complicated feelings, and each year gives me more time to reflect on who I was at that point in time of my life.
Perhaps that makes me a little more wistful for who I was, or who I thought I was. At the same time, I’m glad I’m no longer the same person I was when I stepped foot on campus as a student for the first time in 2006. I will always be thankful for what Ohio University – and Athens at large – gave me, and I hope I can share that with my children as much as possible in the coming years.
By the way, Ohio Brew Week is fantastic.
