During this first year of Jacob’s living and studying at Gatton Academy on the campus of WKU in Bowling Green, we have tried to see him every week. So, we would take him home one weekend and then drive to Bowling Green on the following weekend. Since he started living at Gatton Academy last August, we have missed him more than we had thought we would, and he has missed home more than he had thought possible. Although in essence an adventurous and curious personality, Jacob is slow to adapt to change; therefore, it has taken him more time than he had thought he would need to acclimate to his new circumstances away from home.

Every time we went to WKU to see Jacob, we would either eat brunch or lunch with him at the WKU cafeteria called Fresh where we can choose different types of food from different cooking stations. Our meals there have always been paid for by Jacob using his meal dollars as part of his scholarships. His food scholarship includes two portions — a meal plan and meal dollars. Whenever he eats at Fresh, he uses his meal plans, and he would use meal dollars for other places on campus such as Starbucks, the library’s coffee shop, the convenient store, other restaurants on campus or whenever he pays for us to eat at Fresh. Throughout this school year, Jacob has treated us to many meals at Fresh, drinks at Starbucks and delicious beef jerky from Pod (campus convenience store).

Whenever at WKU, beside eating and seeing Jacob, we would also enjoy taking a walk around a large and hilly campus, weather permitting. It is a terraced university campus with many layers and areas as well as unexpected sceneries around corners and road bends. We feel that it is a large but not too large campus which allows for a good, vigorous walk and some exploration. Sometimes we would just hang out on the large central green lawn, and James and David would throw their football back and forth.

Something interesting happened when we last walked at WKU. As we were standing around at the construction site of the new School of Business and looking at the photo of what the school is going to look like, we heard a voice, “It’s going to be a big building!” As we turned around and took stock of the speaker, we saw a sinewy older man in a baseball cap with alert, enthusiastic facial expressions. His head and eager face leaned forward when he spoke, and his sharp eyes gleamed at us with keenness and good humor. He looked like he had always been wiry and had been taller before his shoulders started stooping with age. He asked us if we had a student at WKU and then told us that he used to teach there and that he now walked there a lot. We asked him what he taught. He replied that he taught counseling and marriage counseling and that he had started the counseling program at WKU. And then he was gone, back on his walk, and we continued our walk towards and around the residential buildings.

On one of our promenades around WKU in very early Spring, we discovered an almost unbelievable abundance of cherry blossom trees all in bloom. We counted around 100 trees in total on campus and around 60 concentrated in one small area. The overwhelmingly beautiful sight of all those cherry blossom trees all blooming at the same time wakened the joyful spirit of Spring in me. I had not known it was possible to feel that way after having been through a winter with such weird and wicked weather systems. David could not stop himself from taking many photos of the cherry blossoms.

That day, as we wandered and submerged our spirit in the utterly elegant charm of the cherry blossom flowers, we were disturbed from our reverie by a strange loud chirping noise coming from one of the trees. Looking up, we saw a squirrel starring at us from one of the branches closest to the ground. We starred at him/her and he/she kept starring at us with his/her eyes wide open. A loudly chirping squirrel starring unblinkingly at passers-by! We had never witnessed such strange behaviors from a squirrel. The squirrels living around our house steal bird seeds and scurry away when we come near them, hardly ever making a noise. We spent some time with him and then moved on. As we looked back, we saw other groups of passers-by hanging around him and taking pictures.

Two weeks later, we came back to WKU and found ourselves stunned by the dazzling redbuds replacing the enchanting cherry blossoms as the main campus beauties. The redbuds thus carried on the symbolic “torch” of the awakening spirit in their beholders and admirers.