Walker Tower is one of the three main dormitories for freshmen at the University of Oklahoma.  It was constructed in 1966 during what was a time of enormous growth of the student body at the University of Oklahoma.  It was originally called Couch North, however, in 1970 it was renamed Walker tower to honor Edward A. Walker, who was a prominent banker in Oklahoma City.  Walker tower is important to me because I have so many good memories of living there. I met some of my best friends there and shared some of my most fond memories while living in this building.  When I think back on my time at the University of Oklahoma I am so many of my favorite memories come from my time that I spent there. While it is not the best-looking building on campus, the memories that come with it is what separates it from so many of the other buildings on campus.

As with many people, my home is very special to me. I was born and raised in Houston, Texas, and moving here was the first time I have been away from my family. Unlike many of my friends, I’ve never moved and have lived in the same house since I was born. For the majority of my life my aunts and uncles have also lived in the Houston metropolitan area, so moving up here to Norman was not just me moving away from my parents, but also out of the only house I’d ever lived in and away from all of my family. While it has been hard and I miss my family and my house, I still love it here. When I think of growing up in my house, I think of one specific doorjamb that leads to the hallway by my bedroom. Ever since I was little my parents have marked my height and age on this doorjamb, and it is very sentimental, especially since I have no siblings. My parents have discussed moving at some point in the future and taking that piece of the doorjamb and keeping it. It’s also pretty cool to see old pictures from when I was a baby or before I was born, sometimes with people that passed and I never knew, and to know exactly where that picture because I know where in my house it was.

Bizzell Memorial Library is an important building for me because of the amount of time that I have spent there and because I like the architecture of the building.  As a student at OU, I have spent countless hours studying in this building and it is the first building that comes to mind when I think of the University of Oklahoma.  It was constructed in 1929 and features a type of architecture known as Cherokee gothic which is something that I think makes our campus unique. I definitely spend more time at the Biz than I do any other building, whether I am studying by myself in the Great Reading Room or with friends between classes.  The Bizzell Memorial Library is definitely one of the buildings that I will remember the most after I graduate from college.  

When I was younger I had always dreamed of going to Paris and seeing all of the sites. Paris is so beautiful in movies and in person and is nick named the city of love and the city of lights. I was so eager to see the beautiful city for myself and got the chance to when I graduated high school. I was expecting the Eiffel Tower to have the greatest impact on me because ever since I was a little girl I wanted to see it. I was actually impacted more by both Notre-Dame and The Palace of Versailles. I will be talking about Notre Dame in this blog. Notre-Dame is a medieval Catholic cathedral and was consecrated to the Virgin Mary. I myself am catholic and have been fortunate enough to go to mass in many famous catholic churches including Notre-Dame. Because I am catholic I am able to feel closer to my own personal faith when I attend mass in beautiful buildings like Notre-Dame. I had chills the entire time, the sounds and architecture that surrounds ones self when inside would make just about anyone feel at peace and in awe. The way the structure of the building was built allowed voices of the choir to sound extra holy and angelic, and allowed for the priest to also be heard throughout the whole church as if someone were speaking straight from the heavens. Attending mass there is an experience I will never forget and luckily I was able to see Notre-Dame before the fire that occurred. Thankfully, they are working hard on restoring the gorgeous building. I thought I would feel quite normal inside of Notre-Dame and I thought it would be like any other church, but I was very wrong. As I explained above, the cathedral made me feel at peace and very connected to my personal faith. The sounds, smells, architecture, detail, and stained glass windows took my senses and emotions on a journey. There was so much to look at, I think I could stay there for a month and there could still be some detail I hadn’t seen. Notre-Dame is a masterpiece in many ways and should be visited by all. (I have taken these pictures myself!)

O’Connell’s Irish pub or Ocons is my favorite bar on campus.  I have spent a lot of time in this bar.  This is the place where I found out that I am bad a karaoke after watching a video of me the next day.   I love the setup of this bar.   When you walk in you have the stage and right in the middle, they have a nice and big bar.  The bar has a granite top and is big enuff to fit all your friends.  The corners of the bar are 45-degree angels making it much more natural to create conversation with others at the bar.  The inside feels kinda cold and dark but in a good way, it feels welcoming.  The photo I have posted is of the back door and this is because this is the door I always use.  This place was always our hangout spot and has a feeling of home to me.

Dale Hall is one of the buildings that has been huge part of my college experience as a student. The first time I had a class in a huge lecture hall with 200 other students was very eye – opening coming from a high school where my graduating class was less than 200 people. I have had so many classes in there that I have learned a lot from. It is not the most exciting building inside or out, but it gave me a taste for what a college level course looks like for the first time.

This building is in LA California. I went with my family on a trip and we walked inside and around the outside of the building. It is a spectacular building in terms of how it is shaped. The building is very distinct in the fact that there aren’t many buildings by it or in the world that are similar.  A memorable experience I had with this building was that there were people taking their wedding pictures outside of the building when we were walking up to it. I wasn’t sure exactly why, but I figured that they must love Disney!

For me, this building has good and bad memories. This is the nursing home my grandmother lived in for 2-3 years and were my mom, aunt, and I visited almost every weekend. The good memories include getting to spend so much quality time with my family and getting to meet the friends my grandmother made while she lived there. Sometimes it was like I had 4 or 5 grandmothers willing to give me advice. The majority of people there were super sweet, and I missed seeing them after my grandmother passed. While I’m not looking to go into the medical field, I learned a lot about nurses and their jobs, how nursing homes are run, and how to stand up for yourself or your family member to make sure they are getting the care they need. The bad memories are mostly associated with my grandmother’s health itself. She had dementia, so there were some days that we visited and she didn’t know who I was. She also fell a lot, so it was hard when I saw her in pain, especially when her health was really bad and she had trouble communicating. All of these memories, the good and bad, I remember every time we drive by Solera on the way to my aunt’s house.

Whitebead school is where I attended elementary and middle school. Whitebead is a small K-8th country school in Pauls Valley, OK. This place is where I found myself. I was the minority at this school. I come from a very diverse home. My Dad is from India and my Mom is from Mexico. I was bullied for the way I looked, dressed, and talked. If I ever spoke Spanish to any of the other hispanic students or ELC teachers my peers would always tell me to go back to Mexico if I wanted to speak Spanish because this is America and apparently we only speak English here. I used to get made fun of for having a unibrow and being brown. I wish I was making this up but I had to learn at a very young age to find who I was and stick up for myself. I realized that this was a great place for me and where I grew so much personally. This building shaped me into the person I am today and I couldn’t imagine growing up any differently.

My time in the Couch Tower was not enjoyed. Living there felt alien compared to how I was used to living at home. I was not happy to be crammed in a normal sized bedroom with another person and all of the belongings we had decided to drag with us to college. To top that off they decided to supply one bathroom for four people. Do the math it does not work. The building has too many stories as well. There were twelve floors If I remember right and that put me at an awkward position living on the fifth floor. To some people, floor five was not up enough to justify taking up elevator time and space. It is also quite an unattractive building in my opinion. The same colored brick covering every bit of the exterior with windows stacked on top of each other. The only cool thing about it was it being shaped like an x. I was glad to move out of that place.