It is sunny today in Little Rock, and the sun is sooooo refreshing. Whenever there is a sunny day no matter where I am, I stop and I smile. The sun shining is such a welcoming feeling, and a good sunny day makes me think of my time at the University of Virginia. I truly believe the sun shines brightest there...
I will never forget my first visit to UVA. For spring break 1997, my mom took me on the quintessential college roadtrip. We visited most of the schools in Virginia and North Carolina, and it kept raining and raining and raining. Despite the rain, each school became my new favorite, and I did not know how I would ever decide where to apply.
And then as we drove into Charlottesville, the rain cleared (no kidding - this is a true story.) We came in from the South of town, and we drove straight to the Lawn so I could take a good look at everything before we settled into our hotel for the night. My first impression of UVA remains my impression today - what a magnificent, glorious, perfect piece of delicious delightfulness!!!!!
In the fall of 1998, I began my adventure at UVA as a first year (we can never be seniors in learning according to Mr. Jefferson, and therefore we are never freshmen), and while the first year was a bit rocky (small fish in big pond syndrome) I grew into my own and have claimed UVA as a prized possession ever since. Why am I so thankful for UVA? Well, I am glad you asked...
The University of Virginia was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson. The University is distinctive among institutions of higher education - it sustains the ideal of developing, through education, leaders who are well-prepared to help shape the future of the nation. The University is public, while nourished by the strong support of its alumni. It is also selective; the students who come here have been chosen because they show the exceptional promise Jefferson envisioned.
For Jefferson, the college experience should take place within an "academical village," a place where shared learning infused daily life. Plans were developed for ten Pavilions—stately faculty homes with living quarters upstairs and classrooms downstairs—attached to two rows of student rooms and connected by an inward-facing colonnade. Each Pavilion was identified with a subject to be studied and inhabited by the professor who taught that subject.
At the head of the shared lawn would stand the library (not, as in most other colleges and universities of the time, a chapel), its dome shape inspired by Rome's Pantheon and symbolic of the enlightened human mind. The plans grew to include two more colonnades of student rooms facing outwards and attached to a set of "hotels" where private businessmen served food for the students. (The UVA description was taken from the school's website, but I don't think I could have said it any better.)
So, today my thoughts are not necessarily written in my own style or words, but Mr. Jefferson's vision of what the university experience should both look like and feel like are why I am so thankful for my time at UVA...my time at the University was SUCH an amazingly well-rounded experience, and I am eternally grateful for it.
And to close, a quote by Mr. Jefferson..."But friendship is precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life, and thanks to a benevolent arrangement the greater part of life is sunshine." I would be remiss if I did not mention that while the sunshine does make me think of UVA, it is my friends from UVA that keep the sunshine alive for me on a daily basis. (And hopefully I will get good with the scanner and can upload a few more photos that I would like to share that show my actual time in college. Technology just keeps changing on me.)
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