Welcome Home
By Lisa Griffith Story, '84

If you have ever visited the place of your birth and felt a rush of nostalgic warmth, then you know what it is like to go "home." Your memories are unique, yet you probably enjoyed sharing them with friends or family, pointing out your favorite play area as well as the house where the neighborhood witch or ghost lived. Of all the homes I have had, UNLV is the most memory-packed and exciting.

Time has gone much faster than I anticipated since my graduation. I have fond, vivid memories of my college years, and it seems impossible that my daughter, Kaili, is a freshman this fall. We toured campus together this past spring, and I reminisced about favorite professors as well as killer on-campus parties (it was the early 1980s). I recalled the controversy when the Flashlight was trucked onto campus, taking the wasted light of the Las Vegas skyline and turning it back into campus. I described the beautiful, vivacious cheerleader for whom Valerie Pida Plaza is named and the honor I feel to have known her.

While I enjoyed the familiar shade of the academic mall, I found the changes on campus exhilarating. At least half the buildings have been built since my graduation. I expected my daughter to find the newness of the campus anti-collegiate, having had her heart set on a 300-year-old university. Instead, Kaili found the vibrancy of UNLV inspirational, and she became enthusiastic about her opportunities here. She was impressed by the details in the physics building, with its sine-wave walls and Isaac Newton apple tree, even though she hopes never to step foot inside it.

The new library, student union, and rec center are world-class, and I’m sure they will inspire many of my daughter’s fond memories of the university.

UNLV is 50 years old — it has grown up, and so have I. But I feel like a young adult when we are together. I look forward to more opportunities to reconnect with the campus, and I invite you to return home again too. Your experience was different from mine, but this is your home too, and you are always welcome.