Live, Laugh, Learn … An Adventure With My Big Sis! 2002

by Heather VanDyke

When you send a set of close sisters to the same school, there will inevitably be differences. We quickly decided it was best to just refer to our home away from home as Longwood since one insisted it was and would always be Longwood College, while the other was just too excited to be the first class of Longwood University. We quickly got over that difference and found ourselves with a new one: Green v. Red, which certainly made for fun display at Oktoberfest! I still remember Color Wars – Senior v. Freshmen – I had no clue what was coming my way until SPLAT a big cup of Green paint came flying into my face, but I quickly filled my cup up with Red paint for the return attack … oh those were good times!

The school year started off with a major drought, which meant a limited water supply, intense heat, and a fear that the James River might dry up and campus would close. Still very grateful that we weren’t sent home and that we quickly learned how to shower fast and conserve water all while living with 10 fans running non-stop in our small dorm-room in high heats with no A/C.

Winter brought about the first snow: perfect photo opportunity and of course that meant sledding on d-hall trays (sorry Dining Services). As the temperatures cooled off, talks of the famous dining hall Thanksgiving dinner spread around campus, which was made complete with none other than the famous Baked Alaska! No matter how many recipes I try, nothing tastes as good as the d-hall version!

We still talk about the days when you had to walk up the huge hill to get to Wynne (now a parking lot by baseball fields), when the middle of campus was something you could drive through (now the gorgeous Brock Commons), and the fact that we wouldn’t trade any of our moments, experiences, life-lessons, friends, or time at Longwood for the world!

Once a Lancer, Forever A Lancer!