Blue Heaven

Some places just possess a certain magic that is impossible to adequately put into words. There are a few places like that on earth for me, and one of them is Chapel Hill. When I was a senior in high school, I only applied to one university - The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I've been a Tar Heel fan for as long as I can remember, and I never really wanted to go anywhere else. My brother was a sophomore at UNC at the time, and that was one more reason for me to want to go there. So I applied for early admission, and thanks be to God, I got in. The next 4 years were the absolute BEST 4 years of my life. It's frustrating to even try to put into words my experience at Carolina, but the best way to describe it is this: Carolina is a family. That's why on the day I graduated, in May 2005, I cried my eyes out because I knew how much I'd miss that place. Sounds cheesy, sure... but it's true. Carolina simply is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

It's hard to beat the beauty of the Old Well in the springtime, with the azaleas blooming around it. Or cool, crisp fall days watching football at Kenan. Or getting up at 5:00 a.m. on a Saturday to stand out in the freezing January morning at the Dean Dome to score basketball tickets. Or laying out in the sunshine on the quad, just as warm days were arriving. During timeouts at basketball games, they used to show a commercial for Carolina that featured Charles Kuralt, former CBS journalist and UNC alum. It featured part of a speech Kuralt had given during the celebration of UNC's bicentennial, in 1993, and I always used to love this particular part:

"What is it that binds us to this place as to no other? It is not the well or the bell or the stone walls. Or the crisp October nights or the memory of dogwoods blooming. Our loyalty is not only to William Richardson Davie, though we are proud of what he did 200 years ago today. Nor even to Dean Smith, though we are proud of what he did last March. No, our love for this place is based on the fact that it is, as it was meant to be, the University of the people."

That, and this passage that Thomas Wolfe wrote for the UNC yearbook in 1920 captivate a little piece of what I feel about this place:

"But sometimes when the springtime comes,
And the sifting moonlight falls
They'll think again of this night here
And of these old brown walls,
Of white old well, and of old South
With bell's deep booming tone,
They'll think again of Chapel Hill and --
Thinking -- come back home."

I guess I'm getting all nostalgic since I'm leaving for Chile tomorrow, but I can't help it. I went back to Chapel Hill with my mom one day last week, and I had such a great time just walking around campus and looking at all the places I used to go. I also bought a children's book for my new nephew called "Hello, Rameses!"... there's a special story behind it for me. Rameses is the UNC mascot, and during the NCAA basketball tournament in 2007, one of the students who dresses up in the Rameses costume for all the games was hit by a car and killed. His name was Jason, and he was a wonderful guy, and it was a really sad time for UNC in general. Shortly after that happened, I was in the student bookstore at UNC and saw the book "Hello Rameses." It's a really cute kids' book, and each page features someone different seeing and saying hi to Rameses on campus. Well, the very last page is Rameses going to sleep at the end of the day and it says, "Goodnight, Rameses." I was standing in the middle of the student bookstore reading it, and when I got to that page, I froze. I felt tears stinging my eyes as I remembered what had happened to Jason, and that simple phrase, "Goodnight Rameses" seemed to so profoundly refer to him. After that, I always wanted to buy that book whenever I had a niece or nephew, and now I do. :)

Anyway, there is so much more I could write about Carolina and what it means to me, but for now I'll just leave you with a few pictures of campus. Which... apparently Blogger wants to add to the top of my post, so whatever. I'm too tired to figure out how to change that right now. ;)