Today, at the high school where I work, we had a Mass celebrating St. Joseph. We invited the parents of our students, the Sister’s of St. Joseph and alums to join us and then stay to have lunch with us. Most of the alums that came were from the class of 1966, they are Jewel Jubilee alums. There were two other alums that came that were just a little bit older than the class of ’66. One graduated in the year of 1960 and the other graduated in 1949; the school opened in 1882. These two ladies were amazing ladies. The one lady who graduated in 1949 lives just a couple of blocks away from the school, I noticed her as she was crossing the street in front of the school, walking with her walker. She walked here, by herself; she would have walked home as well except I convinced her that the heat would melt her chocolate covered strawberries, so she accepted the ride home. She told me that if I want to stay young that I should ride a horse. She still rides her daughter’s Tennessee Walking Horse. I must reiterate that she graduated in 1949, seventy-seven years ago; so you figure out her age.

The other alum, who graduated in 1960, wanted to have a tour of our campus so that she could see all of the changes since she attendend; and there have been a lot. One of our students, a sophmore her at school, started the tour, walking around and giving the “boxed lunch” version of our campus, I walked along and gave the behind the scenes view and history. It was great fun working together with our student and then hearing the stories of our campus from the alum. When we were in our performing arts building, standing in the lobby, there is a digital archive on the wall. We pulled up the digital yearbook from 1960 and found the alum’s senior photo. She was so excited for her daughter, who was walking with us, to see her yearbook.

I am grateful for these moments, meeting great, healthy people. It is these moments that keep me coming back to this campus, to be a part of a team to make memories for the current students, the new students and the students who walked our campus before any of us were ever born.