Dale Hall at the University of Oklahoma is where I have taken most of my classes in my college career. I’m a psychology/pre-law major is the reason for this. Many of my friends think of Dale as a freshman building because they are pre-med or engineering majors. But in my time at OU I’ve grown rather fond of the place. It also has historical significance because Dale Hall (tower) was one of the first places psychology was considered and studied as a legitimate science.

The building itself isn’t strikingly pretty. In fact, it kind of reminds me of a government building. It is square-shaped, with stairs on the south oval side and the side facing Lindsey street. It is composed of red brick, and a light beige roof. Truly, there isn’t much to look at. But I will always consider it ‘my’ building on OU’s campus.

One building that I will never forget is the John Lance Arena in Pittsburg, Kansas. It is Pittsburg State University’s basketball gym and also housed the football team’s locker room and gym during my time there. It is not a good looking building by any means. The brick is faded to a light red and mixed with a light-tan stone, most of the roof is a modern-themed gray metal. There is a bike rack to the right of the doors where athletes generally park their bicycles, mopeds, motorcycles, dirt bikes, and whatever else is driven in the small town northwest of Joplin.

I will never forget my time at Pittsburg State because it had such a mixed effect on me. When I first arrived to start my college career and continue playing football, I was excited. I never thought it was ideal. I had hoped for somewhere like OU but I was happy for the opportunity. I spent an uncountable number of hours in this building for study hall, morning workouts, team meetings, pre-practices, post-practices, classes, and more. While I did not enjoy Pitt State I do have some good memories. Whether it’s causing trouble with the friends in the pointless courses athletes were required to take, or getting pummeled at 6:00 AM three times a week by the strength coach.   I ended up leaving the university after one semester because I couldn’t bear to continue attending, but I won’t ever forget all the time I spent there.

My house in Jenks, Oklahoma has been my home for nine years now. My family moved there when I was twelve years old and going into seventh grade. The entire purpose of the move was to align ourselves with the Jenks school district so I could attend school there. It was the second move our family had made since my parents’ marriage and it was all based on me. Needless to say, my folks made sure I loved the house. I lived here when I got my first girl fiend, when I lost my grandparents, for every dance I went to in high school, when I made my first and second college decision, and for many more significant times.

The front yard is about half an acre. There are oak trees that stand alone on the left and right side of the yard, only a couple feet from the sidewalk. The house is dark red brick with white accents. The sidewalk that leads to the front door runs horizontally up to the porch. The front door is dark green and surrounded by a square outline of bricks. Above the front is the window into the guest bedroom in which my best friend has lived for certain periods of time.  To the right of the front door is my mother’s office which you can see into from the large window facing her desk. To the left of the door are three, tall, slender windows that look into the garage. If you walk around the left side you arrive at the tan, three-car garage. The back yard has a pool directly in front of the steps of the two-level patio. There is a large, rectangle-shaped seating area that is covered by an extension of our roof. To the right of the patio is an uncovered seating area that sits about a foot lower. All of the wood is a dark, mahogany color. If you walk around the pool, there is a small bridge leading you to a swinging bench that faces the house. Behind that is the large, 1.5 acre back yard that I spent so much time running around. All of the wood is a dark, mahogany color.

I lived in the Lambda Chi Alpha house my sophomore year of college. It is without a doubt the most memorable place I have spent less than a year in. Many of the memories are not acceptable for sharing but it isn’t hard to imagine some of the events that happen when you put sixty guys ranging from 19-22 in one building to live. The first week I lived in I busted my forehead open on a metal-plated wall and had to go to the hospital. The last week I lived in I didn’t sleep in my room a single night because the AC was broken and it was 89 degrees in there. Somewhere in the middle of all that I made a countless number of friends, acquired a countless number of stories, and had some of the best times I will ever have.

The house is made of tan brick with scattered red brick throughout. The roof is your typical black shingle roof. There is a concrete sidewalk that leads to the front steps and generally you can see residents in many of the eighteen windows that line the front. The wall of the building that holds the front door stand straight up, and the walls to the left and right make a ‘v’ shape toward you. This is because of the many rooms that the four hallways contain. On the left side, below the second floor block of rooms, there is a lower roof that covers the dining room. There is also an ugly, dirty fire escape visible from the front on the left side.

I attended Metro Christian Academy from kindergarten through sixth grade. That time span is a huge developmental period and because of that I remember a ton from my time there. It was in this time that I realized how much I love to read, learned to play football, became aware of how much I hated basketball, and made my best friend who is still my best friend to this day. I was in the building when 9/11 occurred and I still remember the exact moment when I found out. It was at MCA that I matured so much and began to get an idea of the people I did and did not want to spend time around. It was where I earned my first school suspension and for the first time in my life decided that moving locations was the best decision for me.

The building is simply tan brick with blue accents. The most notable part of the place is that it has a circle shape, which is unusual. From the outside you wouldn’t be able to tell that it houses students ranging from kindergarten to high school. The age groups are mostly separated by floor or hallway.

The Robert L. Sharp Center of Jenks High School serves as the weight room, locker room, meeting rooms, sports medicine headquarters, and essentially houses anything football related. The building is state of the art in every manner. The majority of it is maroon brick, while the rest is accented with tan stone. The roof is black metal. On the back side facing the field there is a massive, square stone with a carved Trojan head in the middle.

This building is important to me because football is almost entirely the reason that I left my private school in sixth grade. Jenks has a historic football program and I wanted nothing more than to be a part of all the stories I had heard growing up in Tulsa. The sport consumed my life from the time I became a part of ‘school ball’ in eighth grade. That being said, the Sharp Center was like a second home. There were plenty of times I slept there and even more instances in which I spent a solid 80% of my day there. My class had a very successful run playing for Jenks and I was blessed with the opportunity to play college ball on scholarship. The building is significant for me because a massive amount of my high school memories were made there or on the field it connects to.