Moving. Wouldn’t it be easier to just stay put?
But that’s not how life works. We move from home to home, city to city, country to country. We pack up boxes. We load a truck. We unpack boxes. Same stuff in a different location.
The Office of Alumni Relations recently moved from the Burton D. Morgan Center to the second floor of Sigma Chi. It was daunting to relocate an entire team and to find new spaces for all of our stuff (and we have a lot of Denison-related stuff).
I did not anticipate the effect of the space on our work. Alumni regularly stop by to see their old rooms. They tell stories of life in Sigma Chi. Composite photos line the hallways, and visitors are reminded of friendships … and of some bad haircuts. They can’t stop smiling, and they don’t really want to leave.
Last fall, I had the opportunity to talk with an alumna and great-granddaughter of the gentleman who built Monomoy Place, currently the family home of Denison’s president. Monomoy has been many things over the years, including a residence hall and fraternity house. This alumna also couldn’t stop smiling. Seeing the home where she spent time earlier in life brought back many, many happy memories.
Some places are just more special than others. A childhood home, a favorite vacation spot, a friend’s front porch. Those are the places where you made memories, where you long to return. For most of the Big Red family, the Denison campus is one of these places. We hope you’ll return “home” soon.