History repeats itself

Yesterday, as I rushed across campus at noon on a fine bright day that seemed like the first true beginning of spring, clutching to my chest a book by a dear author I just couldn't wait to read, I was instantly transported back 9 years to a similar situation on the campus of Iowa State. That day, I was holding a different book to my chest, and I was walking across Iowa State's vast central quad (which I have always thought would be more appropriate for raising an endless field of wheat than for rushing across every day), but the feeling of anticipation I felt was exactly the same. This made me realize both how much has changed and how much has stayed the same, and also that it all comes back to Ames, Iowa.