It's strange how powerful nostalgia is. I know I don't want to be 20 again. I enjoyed it at the time, but let sleeping dogs lie and all that. Still, there are things I miss about being a young, mormon, college student. I admit, I love telling college stories at social gatherings. The honest amazement I am greeted with when I explain that no, really, none of us drank or debauched in any way is like a well worn party trick. Then I delve into the really heavy stuff. The fact that my freshman year boyfriend and I would spend Sunday evenings singing hymns in tunnels with a few hundred of our classmates. Or one of my fondest memories is the day we checked out all the Dr. Seuss books from the library and sat under a large willow and read them to one another. I know how it sounds. But it really was fantastic to have such an appreciation of the simple pleasures of life. We climbed trees, discovered the lights at the law library were hot enough to make smores, and we took care of one another.
I may not follow the mormon theology anymore, but I still embrace the culture of appreciation and community I discovered. And, sometimes when I've been out late, I sing the hymns to celebrate the new joys in my life.
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