My First Home Away from Home

I ate many meals at the the Dobbs Dining Hall--hello, Freshman 15!

I know things don’t last forever, but it never occurred to me that good old Mizzou would tear down my old residence hall, Lathrop Hall. I admit, even when I did live there I thought it was dated and in dire need of an update, but after living there for two years, the place holds a special place in my heart. Even the residence hall next door, Laws, holds some pretty nice memories as well. Hell, the Dobbs dining hall, too!

I remember watching my family walk away and leaving me to fend for myself for the first time in my life. This was where I’d experienced my first snowfall, which turned out to be a historical snowstorm.

I shared Valentine’s Day hearts with my engineering crush while studying in the Dobbs dining hall. I first realized WB would be one of my friends to this day when we had a sleepover and discovered we loved the same obscure made-for-TV movie I had recorded on VHS tape.

I hid my freshman year roommate’s visiting boyfriend from her parents. I used to time my visits to the dining hall based on when my crush of the moment (Jeremy, Kendrick, Jim) was there. I’ll always remember the random talks on the balcony and the silly nights that helped distract us from studying.

Of course, there were the not-so-fun memories as well like fighting with my roommate, getting so sick I couldn’t move, and being homesick. But that’s what college life was all about. It was a series of ups and downs and new people who came into your life for a brief moment or stayed with you for the long journey ahead.

To know that these buildings may not exist within the next couple of years breaks my heart a little, but it was inevitable. The entire campus has transformed and this is just the last piece. I think this calls for another trip to Columbia. I need one last picture for the memory book.