This weekend I drove out to Englefeld for my friend's wedding shower. On the way back to the city I drove past the town that houses the off-site college that I attended for my first year of University. I had never really seen the building from far away because when you approach it from the direction of the city, it is shielded by the town of Muenster and many many trees - but seeing it from the Englefeld side was a whole new perspective. This building is undeniably beautiful, with all of it's history and the surrounding grounds, but from this new view it was something else. The sun was getting low and the sky was perfectly clear and I could just see the highest point of the building peeking over some trees at first until I rounded a bend in the road and was able to see everything but the first two floors.
Whenever I'm in the area I stop in to see the Monks that live there (it is also a Benedictine Monastery) and wander the gorgeous grounds, but I hadn't been planning on it this time because I had a lot of driving to do in the short two days of the weekend and I knew I'd be coming back in a couple months for my friend's wedding anyway. Needless to say, the view drew me in and I was once again reliving my first year of university and missing my friends and my professors.
Driving down the winding road and passing over the tiny creek to go through the trees and approach the building never loses its splendor to me. My heart warms up and a sense of peace washes over me every single time. Being there made me realize that you really don't notice how something changes you until much later, and even then you most likely don't realize how it is changing you still. My experience at St. Peter's College is something that I would never trade. Even though I know circumstances prevented me from fully experiencing the lifestyle and the people that the College had to offer, I am still so thankful for the time that I was able to spend there. I will continue to visit and I will continue to be nostalgic every time. I hope that someday in the future I will bring my husband there to show him a huge part of what makes me me, and I hope that we will show our children too. This place is something that needs to be shared.
