In his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom , Nelson Mandela wrote, “There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered.” Walking around Laurier’s campus as a full-blown adult was more than a little surreal. Finding a parking spot was certainly more challenging than when I attended in the mid-‘90s, but as soon as I entered the doors, it was like a younger version of myself was the one meandering the halls. Across the tiled floors, past the solarium, down the stairs and into the concourse. The Williams I would frequent was now a Starbucks, and there were laptops open on just about every table—non-existent in my university days—but the vibe was very much the same and I felt simultaneously at home and in another world. When I arrived at the student services office, I took a number and dropped myself into a chair to wait. My name was called and I stepped up to the desk where a young woman who couldn’t have been much more tha...
"As a novelist no less than as a teacher, I try not to stack the deck unduly but always let doubt and darkness have their say along with faith and hope, not just because it is good apologetics - woe to him who tries to make it look simple and easy - but because to do it any other way would be to be less than true to the elements of doubt and darkness that exist in myself no less than in others." - Frederick Buechner, Now and Then