Kappa Alpha Theta is the sorority house that I pledged as a freshman in 2016. It was my first impression and the start to what my college experience would be at OU.  This building and home means so much to me because it is my home away from home but also was my go-to place as a scared and overwhelmed freshman. This place has allowed me to be exactly who I am through all the highs and the lows. I will be vulnerable and share a part of why this house means so much more to me than just a pretty white house on Chautauqua Ave. My freshman year, my father was diagnosed with prostate cancer. Imagine being on a huge campus, trying to figure your life out, taking a full schedule and working 25 hours a week, and knowing that your dad has cancer and you aren’t able to be with him because I had to be here. That is when this place became so much more than a beautiful building, it became a place where all the girls in that house made me feel so loved and cared for during the most difficult time in my life. I am most thankful for that building and how it has made my college experience so sweet and special.

When I was in middle school I got very interested in reading and when I finally got bored with the books in the library my mother took me to Barnes & Noble. Of course, I had seen Barnes & Noble before because it was right next to the Toys are Us and you could see through the many windows and just see rows and rows of books and I would think that it was a place for intelligent people. The first time I actually entered the building I was surprised at how huge and open the space was and just packed with all types of books. The store is one completely open space with bookshelves for walls and in the center is a Starbucks where you can get food and drink so it’s like a maze where you can hide in a corner and just grab a snack and read a book in a corner quietly. For my introverted book-loving self this place was nothing short of a paradise and it took 3 hours to pick out my first book for what was supposed to be a 20-minute trip. I would continuously bug my mom to take me back to Barnes & Noble over the years till I could drive and then I would spend hours there just reading.

Red Rocks is the most beautiful place to see a concert in the world.   I grew up in Denver and as a kid, I would go to Red Rocks a lot on field trips or with my family to hike around or run the stairs.   for a long time, this place was only a place I would go for outdoor activities. and when I was in high school and I could drive I got to go see my first concert there.  it was Eric Church and when you first get to concerts there the sun is setting on Denver.  the red and orange of the sunset contrasted against that of the rock is a sight to see.   since then I have seen many people there and Red Rocks never disappoints.    This is also the place where I graduated high school and my principal opened his speech with “this is my first year at this school and the first thing you have to learn when you come to highlands ranch is how to deal with Matt Murphy”.  I have great memories from this place in a lot of different ways from being active to listening to great music and graduating high school.

Walker Tower has to be one of my most favorite parts about college this far. If I could go back and do it all over again, I would do it in a heartbeat. Although they are musty and gross, I would do it all over again. I lived in a super suite with 3 other girls and it was by far the best decision I have ever made. We never closed our door, our room was where everyone in the hall came to hang out and get ready. I met some of the most incredible people and made the best memories. I do think it wouldn’t hurt to upgrade them but the memories I made in those musty dorms are priceless. I still keep in touch with all the girls I lived with freshman year and I am so confident that they will be my forever friends. It’s because of this building that I have met incredible people, lasting friendships, got to have people supporting and encouraging me throughout freshman year. I think I can speak for all of us when saying that freshman year is so incredibly hard and challenging and you need those kind of people in your corner. Thanks walker 409E!

This building is Gampel Pavilion. This is the gym that UConn Basketball plays in for home games. Sometimes the men’s team play in the XL center in Hartford. This building was a part of my life growing up because I watched a lot of basketball games here and I also went to UConn basketball camps where we played inside of this building. Everytime I played here I always thought it was really cool because college basketball players practiced there. The stadium feel really made it seem like a giant deal when I was younger.

Evans hall is a building that has provided for me over the past 4 years. I will never forget when my mentor reached out to me and asked if I wanted a job one week into my freshman year; my parents weren’t making me get a job but it just worked out that I said yes because I was able to help my parents out since my dad happened to get diagnosed with cancer. This building has helped me grow personally and professionally. I am confident in my abilities to deal with people, tough situations whether it is students or faculty/staff, and allowed me to grow in so many ways. I am so grateful for the opportunity to work in the Office of Legal Counsel because it has allowed me to provide for myself when my parents weren’t that able to. I was allowed to make trips with friends and shop for things I need and want without hesitation. Forever blessed by this building and the meaning behind it for me.

Last spring I studied abroad in Japan for the semester. I lived in the international dorm for Ritsumeikan University in Osaka, Japan. In Japan, most people live in apartments and there isn’t a lot of space allocated for rooms. Throughout the semester my room would get very cramped very easily because of how small it was compared to my room back home. My suitcases and backpack from home took up the majority of my room already so there was barely any space available. With the lack of space you could also decorate barely anything, leaving the room feeling more like a prison cell. Eventually I started stacking my excess things on top of my dresser to keep them out of the way. Staying there made me really appreciate my room back home and how to better manage my space effectively.

Ok, so this is a bridge.  I’m not sure if it counts as architecture, but I do believe we learned about Roman aqueducts and the like, so I’m going to roll with it.  I believe this is one of the most amazingly beautiful and terrifying bridges I’ve ever driven across.  Granted some of the mystique comes from the surrounding geography.  The bridge links Fidalgo Island and Whidbey Island in the Puget Sound in Washington state.  It is also the only way off of Whidbey Island that is not a ferry.

The waterway is called Deception pass because original Spanish explorers believed Fidalgo and Whidbey were all one island and the pass was merely a bay. The waters of the pass are also deceptively calm looking; but the undertows are vicious.  The bridge itself, finished in 1935, is only two lanes wide, and those are narrow lanes.  But as it’s the only way for semis to get to the towns on island, they must cross it daily.  This makes or quite a hair-raising drive when you encounter one.   Further, you have to drive quite slowly, way slower than any young sailor (or tourist) likes to go, or you can easily lose control and head over the edge.  As I said, the lanes are narrow and the water below is highly turbulent below the surface.  Going over is a sure death.

The entire area, the water, the rocks, the trees, can change its look depending of the way the sun hits it during the day, or whether or not it is overcast, and what time of year it is.  The metal of the bridge also takes on different looks with these differences in weather.  It happens frequently where there will be a fog over one island and only one part of the bridge, completely obscuring the destination requiring faith that it is still there.  It is also not very well lit at night because it is a state park and they want to preserve the flora and fauna of the area.

My husband and I moved to Whidbey Island in the spring of 2006 and we lived there for 6 years.  You could maybe chalk up the tense feeling crossing the bridge the first few times to the jitters of moving to a new location and starting life at a new duty station, but after 6 years, those feelings never went away.  The final year we lived there I worked on the main land and drove over the bridge twice a day for 5 days out of the week, and every time I was struck by the amazing feat to bridge these lands, the beauty of the man made work and the nature it was anchored to, and the risk taken with each crossing.  Many buildings and structures are examples of man conquering nature, but this structure leaves you wondering if we really have mastered it, as we sometimes think.

Eagle Ridge is where I went to elementary school here and I believe this place shaped me more than anywhere else.   I love the layout of this place it was like a split level house and once you got to fourth grade you got to go upstairs.  this place is where I lived a lot of my young life.  I can still picture almost every room and playground. the white of the nurse’s office where I would go when I felt sick or the time that I got a staple stuck in my hand.  but what I remember most about the building is the way the outside was designed. it was like it was designed for all the games we would play.   after school me my brother, sister and all our friends would stay and play cops and robbers.  around the school there where three playgrounds and they were at multiple levels allowing you the ability to hide in one and if you had the guts you could jump to a lower level to avoid the “cops”.  the place was set up perfect for the game complete with a jail or pavilion.   my aunt is the vice principal there now and going back fills me with so many good memories of playing games.

King’s Cross is another cafeteria on Epic’s campus. Although it pales in comparison to the actual King’s Cross station in London, I love it. It looks straight out of Harry Potter, which makes it fit perfectly in the Wizard’s Academy campus. It does look strikingly like a train station might, just without the trains.

My favorite part of the building (besides the food) is the amount of natural light. Those windows provide a ton of it! It brightens up the whole place. The rest of the small details are great too, including smaller rooms that are labeled different platforms, and even some tunnels that lead to it (that look straight out of the NYC subway, to me).