by Stacy Lynn Mattern

It has been said that unless you value yourself, you won’t value your time, and until you value your time—you will not do anything with it. I can say with confidence that I not only value myself and my time, but I have done something with it.

As I look back on the years I have been at Oregon State, I have come to realize that I will have spent approximately two thousand hours working at the Memorial Union. That doesn’t include the hours spent eating at Pangea, studying in the Commons, or catching up with friends in the Quad. It also doesn’t include the minutes spent napping in the lounge, mailing my mother a handwritten letter at the Post Office, or enjoying my morning coffee at Java Stop. And it sure doesn’t include the seconds spent dropping off my film, buying blue books last minute in the Bookstore, or exchanging smiles as I pass people in the halls.

For the amount of time I have spent inside the Memorial Union, whether working or not, there is nothing that can exactly describe what I feel when I open the doors. The Memorial Union is more than a building; it is a way of life. It is so much more than a place that I work, it has become and intricate part of who I am. Much of my success and happiness at college stems from the Memorial Union. I am so lucky to have been given the chance to be a part of a team that represents the University, The energy and spirit that resides within this building is from the students and employees that have gone before us. Their spirits are here with us, to help us work, to help us learn, and to help us through life.

Modifying what Henry Drummond once said, you will find as you look back upon your life that the moments when you have truly lived the moments when you have done things in the spirit of the Memorial Union.