"L" is for Lincoln

Some of the best years of my life were when I was in college in Lincoln, Illinois. I know many people claim college to be their best years, but mine were not stereotypical. It wasn't because of partying. I was just insanely happy and made some lifelong friends.

Three hours south of Chicago

Lincoln is right in the center of Illinois, about 30 miles north of the capital Springfield on I-55. There are a lot of places that claim to have a connection to Abraham Lincoln, but for this town, the claim is true. Lincoln, Illinois was named after Abraham Lincoln before he even became president. In fact, he was present the day they officially named the town and he christened the town by smashing a watermelon on the town square. 'Honest Abe' practiced law in the courthouse a few times a month when he rode up from Springfield.

The town of Lincoln is home to two colleges. Lincoln College is a private liberal arts college and Lincoln Christian University which is one of the first Restoration Movement colleges (it was Lincoln Bible Institute in the beginning).

This is the school where I got my Bachelor's Degree in Christian Ministry and am currently working on my Master's in TESOL. I love this school. I briefly went to another college in between degrees, but had been spoiled for Lincoln and came back.

During the beginning years of my undergraduate studies, I lived in married student housing with my family. Like most college students, we were flat broke and wondered every month how we were going to pay the rent. We soon learned how wonderful it was to be a part of a great group of friends who relied on each other.

In the summer time, the families from the surrounding apartment buildings would pull all the picnic tables together and bring what food they had. Fifteen to twenty families would share. We cooked out, ate well and enjoyed each other's company. It was wonderful. It became an unintentional, big, happy family. We laughed and cried together, took trips and classes together, studied together, prayed together, got to know each other's extended families and took care of each other's kids.

Today, over 10 years later, I am still in contact with most of those people. A few of them I talk to several times a week. As much as we struggled, I wouldn't trade that time for anything.

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Happily participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. For the entire month of April, 1,868 bloggers are working their way through the alphabet. One letter every day but Sundays for a total of 26 days.

Click here to visit the website and get more information to see if you might want to join in next year. It's a lot of fun, introduces you to hundreds of new blogs and gives your writing some fantastic exposure.