Feeling Like a Freshman at Northwestern University

How perfect; a pumpkin carving of the campaign logo that most represents hope and change, Barack Obama.

Every day I pass by it on my way to the Red Line, sitting in the sun next to a Sony TV (apropos) on the window sill of an anxious supporter. Then again, who isn't anxious in Chicago? This city is beaming with political optimism and pride for their State Senator.

Yesterday feels like I walked a 100 miles. Every corner I turned there was beautiful symmetry and proportion that warranted a Kodak moment. I couldn't swing my lens fast enough to capture the unique essence of art, history and modern design that makes Chicago so great. Every new vantage point held promise that the next shot would be better than the last.

And it was when I got to Northwestern University, a verdant campus 15 miles north of Chicago with a 100 year old tradition of students painting this six-foot-high quartzite boulder.

Located on Lake Michigan, Northwestern U. is ranked among the top fifteen national universities in the US, behind most of the Ivies minus Cornell and Brown but way ahead of private and public schools like Berkeley, UVM and Michigan. Famous entertainment alumni include Actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Actors Charlton Heston and Warren Beatty, and Comedian Stephen Colbert.

Inside the 240-acre campus (tote water with you when you visit) are beautiful modified Gothic and Romanesque structures with rough-cut limestone walls, sweeping arches, slate roofs and eyebrow dormers. Moss and vine tentacles wrap around some of the buildings like Deering Library, Cahn Auditorium and the Alice S. Millar Chapel.

I felt like a freshmen asking students for directions to the local book store for a pendant and sweatshirt. Time lapsed far too quickly in Evanston as I snagged one of the last trains back to Chicago before the sun set on an otherwise picture-perfect day in the Midwest.