"That girl isn't going to fit in at Beloit." -Dan Hubbard

We were at the mail room of Beloit College searching for the 6 large boxes I had shipped over the summer and, yes, I had packed way too much for my tiny single room in the dorms! While searching my Dad spotted a girl who was wearing a short denim skirt, Ugg boots, a sparkly top, and had her hair in a messy style that had to have taken hours to perfect he told us, "that girl isn't going to fit in at Beloit." We looked at each other and smiled in perfect understanding; it was the first of many moments that grew the special bond Beloit College allowed us to share.

My Dad was a graduate of the class of '82. He was a football player, a political science major, President of Sigma Chi, and a well loved student by the faculty and administration. He even played basketball for a season before deciding he would rather coach the local high school team! Growing up my Dad would speak about Beloit fondly and tell me how tough it was but he would also tell me how much it taught him about writing and critical analysis; two skills that allowed him to become one of the most respected and successful trial attorneys in Denver.

When I was choosing colleges I had 2 requirements; it had to be out of state and it had to be small. You can only imagine how distraught my Grandma Sheliah and Mom were upon hearing that! However, my parents where incredibly generous and allowed me to hijack a week of our summer vacation to visit colleges in the Midwest. We toured several in Iowa and, though I liked them, when I walked onto Beloit College's campus with Dad I knew where I needed to go. We spent an afternoon walking around the campus and he told me stories about his college years and the memories he made.

Beloit was a shared experience for us. We had several of the same professors, our Dean of Students was the same, and we both knew that she would never fit in at Beloit and, sure enough, she transferred at the end of our freshman year! I could talk to my Dad about the rigor of my courses, how the weather drove me crazy, how sometimes I didn't understand my peers and their lack of showering, and he would get it. I could tell my Dad about my dreams and my need to discover the world and he would support it and find a way for me to achieve it.

My Dad gave me the courage to go to Beloit, to travel to Africa, and to live in DC. My Mom tells me that it was my independence and drive that he most admired. Dad was proud of who I had become and how I was living my life. Lately, I have been struggling a lot with the knowledge that I am only 24 (25 next month) and my Dad will miss out on most of my life. It brings me to tears, even writing this, to know he will never met my husband or my children, he will never see me enroll and graduate from a masters program, he will never see me purchase my first home, and he will never see me become the woman he helped to create.

Today I went to an admitted students event for the class of 2016- wow, I feel old! I met a girl who would fit in perfectly at Beloit and Mom who was panicked about her son considering schools so far away. But it made me happy! I thought about how much Dad would have loved hearing about these young people and how we would have spoken about Beloit and its oddities with fondness and love. I remembered his comment, from so many years ago, and I realized Dad knew who I was and that we had plenty of shared memories and laughter to last my lifetime. No, he wont meet my husband but he knows the kind of man I will be searching for and that just has to be enough.