As graduation approaches for me this Friday, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about all the things that I’ve seen and been a part of over the past three years I’ve been at SIU.

I was here when my beloved Cardinals won two pennants and their first World Series title since 1982. Despite what any Cubs fan will say about the Cards today, we’ll always have 2006.

I was here when the entire country learned what it means to be a Saluki when the SIU men’s basketball team became sweet once again. There is no doubt that we can play with the big boys and the future of the program with C-Lo at the helm looks bright.

Advertisement

I was here when Halloween continued to go by each year without a hitch. Maybe if we all behave ourselves a few more years, the city will lift the silly restrictions or possibly even try to find a way to make money off of the deal like many other college towns have been doing for years.

I was here when Unofficial became the official thing to do in Carbondale.

I was here when the White Sox won it all and prompted a few hundred morons to ransack the campus. Note: To this day, I still don’t understand the correlation between the White Sox winning the World Series and the need to try to tear down the goalposts at the football stadium.

I was here when Carbondale became home to a colorful assortment of vehicles ranging from the Mystery Machine, a car that’s painted like a brick walls and my personal favorite, a candy apple green Cutlass Supreme with the license plates that say “Butta.”

I was here when cigarette smokers seemed to feel the campus was their ashtray instead of the actual ashtrays. I’m sure prospective students like to see squirrels running around with cigarette butts in their mouths instead of acorns.

I was here when Snake, I mean Larry, patrolled the parking lots with a personal vendetta against SIU students.

I was here when the university took a step in the right direction by upgrading and adding several critical facilities, including the Student Health Center, Trout-Wittman, Wall ‘ Grand and Morris Library.

Advertisement*

I was here when SIU football rose to the top of the Gateway, making household names of players such as Brandon Jacobs, Arkee Whitlock, Braden Jones and J.T. Wise.

I was here when Facebook and MySpace became more addicting than cigarettes. My advice to everyone is to remember anything that gets posted on there can be seen by a lot of people, and if you’re doing something you shouldn’t be doing or something that you don’t want people to see, don’t post it on Facebook.

I was here when Da Bears made it back to the Super Bowl. Although the game didn’t turn out like many of us wanted, it was a sight to see Devin Hester run the opening kickoff back for a touchdown.

The most important thing I think I will ever take away from my undergraduate years is that I was at SIU and wouldn’t trade my experiences over the past three years for anything.

My advice to anyone coming back next year is to make your SIU experience a memorable one.

Go to the Spillway. Stay out until 5 a.m. on a Wednesday night just because. Eat a Winston’s bagel. Get involved in things on campus. Make it out to the tailgates for the football games or sit on the hill for a baseball game. Visit the wine trails. Go to Steak ‘n Shake at 3 a.m. Hike around Giant City. Eat at Mary Lou’s. Go fishing, but do not eat what you catch at Campus Lake. Play intramural sports. Go bowling at the Student Center. Attempt to navigate Faner Hall. Play bags on a warm afternoon. Walk through the Campus Woods, even if it takes you out of your way.

College is a time to have fun and enjoy life. Take advantage of every minute of it because trust me, the semesters go by even faster every year you are here. I leave you now with a quote from Irish storyteller Charles de Lint, which I feel sums up the whole college experience: “When all’s said and done, all roads lead to the same end. So it’s not so much which road you take, as how you take it.”

Fruth is a senior studying history.