Hanging Out At The U...My Alma Mater

This morning I had the pleasure of participating in a high school script writing workshop at my alma mater, the University of Utah. 

Things have changed.

The interesting part was, the building in which we read the winning short scene scripts was held in a building where I actually took classes. I guess that's not that interesting, except there are buildings where I took classes that are no longer there, and there are so many buildings on campus that didn't exist in 1992.

I first drove to the Union Building--just getting there from the north side of the campus I saw just how much has changed. In the late 1980s there was an actual golf course (nine hole...) on campus, just east and north of the Union Building. It's hard to even imagine that because any place that once was golf course is now building or parking lot for said building.

I needed to drive over to the bookstore and the PAB (Performing Arts Building). No problem, I thought. I drive from the Union north, then turn east, the south, then west. That road will take me to the bookstore. Driving that road gave me a whole new set of never-before-seen-by-me things to see. There's a softball field and a running track that were not there before. They were so foreign, I couldn't remember what was there back in the day. Attending the school from 1987 to 1992, I got to know the campus pretty well. 

The new buildings/sports venues on both side of the street threw me off.

It's okay--I still know how to get to the bookstore. I've attended a U of U football game or two in the past decade so I knew some things had changed, but mostly they were the same. Still, I missed the road going west--I think the Trax light rail tracks confused me.

I eventually made it. The PAB looked the same in many ways, but there were changes in that, too. It's one of the older buildings on campus, not as old as those on President's Circle, but old. One day, I'm sure, they'll tear down the PAB. And when I return in another decade or two, when I look for the PAB, it'll be gone.

Times have...and will continue...to change.