A College and a Home

This weekend as the air is chilled with the early taste of fall, students, faculty, and alumni will come together to celebrate the many things that make Guilford College uniquely enduring, and endearing, College and "home."

Many many years ago it was a location for the Underground Railroad. Before the Civil War Guilford was a leader in educating both girls and boys. The College stood firm in support of social, racial, ethnic, religious differences, justice, and equality, many years before the phrase "politically correct" was ever spoken.    

This weekend alums will return to campus and marvel at how young the students look. We will roam the hallways and classrooms of buildings we once planned our days around. We will do a double take when a woman says she lives in a dorm that was all male (mostly) when we were on campus.

For some of us it will have been many years since we were on campus. Others were there in the Spring for class reunions. Some alums back on campus this weekend drive past the College daily on their way to work. A few lucky ones have the privilege of working there. No matter how long it has been since we last were there, Guilford leaves an indelible mark on each student lucky enough to call it "my College."

The values and the principals the College has stood on so firmly were woven into our time there and remain with us daily. There is a kinship among Guilfordians that I have never seen experienced among  alums from other schools. We are forever connected to the College and to each other.

There will be new faces, and familiar faces worn with time. The older buildings will stretch wide to welcome us down their hallways again. We will marvel at how the campus is the same and yet so much better. Perhaps it is all crisper in our eyes now because we know what we took away with us left us connected to one another, and will always bring us back.