As a geography major, it was only right to reflect on my time at Villanova through a sense of place. 

We have place to thank for virtually every memory we make, which is why, when we come back to campus in a couple years, we’ll be overwhelmed with nostalgia. So, for my final article for The Villanovan as a student, I have written about some of my most meaningful places.

First year move-in may have been the hottest day of the summer, and I’ll never forget the five flights of stairs we had to climb in Stanford to move everything in. I remember one of the counselors talking to me about orientation. 

“I don’t know how they pick the groups, but it’s not random; you’ll meet really special people,” she said. 

Her sentiment did, in fact, come true. I met one of the most important people in my life the next day, and it did not feel like it was left up to chance. I would never have found the people I know today if it weren’t for that experience. So, here’s to Stanford, as corny as it sounds, where it all began. 

The following year, I lived in the Quad with a girl I barely knew. Sullivan Hall, during Covid, left a lot to be desired, and I had no idea how living with a roommate in a shoebox during the lockdown would go. 

Little did I know, I would meet one of my best friends and current roommate in that dismal room. Eating to-go dinner on the floor of our room was not the most glamorous dining in the world, but it did leave me with some of my favorite memories with my best friends.

In my junior year, we braved the first normal year back at Villanova on West Campus in Gallen Hall. Affectionately known as Gallen 307, we spent hours and hours talking, watching movies, celebrating birthdays, playing games, baking and making the most of our renewed sense of normalcy. 

Gallen 307 will forever be home to “It’s time for him to go,” and “Why does it feel so good and hurt so bad?”

Much of my junior year was spent in the basement of Corr Hall, and while that may sound odd, it houses one of the biggest hidden treasures on all of campus: The Villanovan Office. The office was meant for putting the paper together, but it was much more often used as a social space for the editorial staff. 

The digital editor and I could often be found there drafting photoshopped edits of the EIC or scheming up texts to send in the group chat to stir the pot. I have the office to thank for not only the best club on campus but the best people.

It’s bittersweet to part with the academic spaces at Villanova, as I’ve had some of my highest of highs and lowest of lows on the ground floor of Mendel or Falvey Holy Grounds. 

Again, used as more of a social space than a work area, I have the GEV department to thank for bringing me and my peers closer. Quickly, my fellow classmates became more than just “friends from my major.”

Finally, we found ourselves living off-campus as seniors in our singular apartment, “the prop.” The prop is way more than just our apartment, now a casual term for our collective roommates as an entity. 

The prop can often be found at one of our favorite places: The Grog, at trivia on Wednesday nights, where we consistently lose to Montgomery Ave. Condo Association. 

The Grog was one of our most frequented establishments this past year, and our week would look much different without it. Despite the lease ending in May, the prop is forever.

In the various geography courses I’ve taken, we’ve learned how geography is not only about the earth’s environments, but the people who live there. 

While each place is unique to itself, it could never hold the same value if it were not for the people that accompanied it. So, thank you, Villanova, for giving me the place and the people.