September 13, 1971
Three and a half hour drive
Father, mother, me
Park on College Street
Bustling with cars and people
Forty-somethings and eighteen-year-olds
Suitcases and backpacks and boxes

Formidable Gothic facade
Stone edifice framing Old Campus
Pass through iron gate
Father, mother, me
Sprawling courtyard
Intimate, august, intimidating
Cloistered quadrangle set apart

Walk to northwest corner
Father, mother, me
Granite steps front Wright Hall
Soulless red stone towers above
Three flights of stairs, cold and dark
Middle floor of five
Bare door 323

Inside stark empty colorless
No furniture save rude bunks plain desks
Just me two suitcases and a backpack
Quick goodbyes, too brief hugs
Then no father no mother
Just me in a place very much not home
Now what?