My name is Rebecca Brannick '06 and this is my Southwestern story.

Behind the Lois Perkins Chapel, nestled in front of a rose bush that blossomed like clockwork all four springs I lived at Southwestern, there is a nondescript metal bench. What makes this particular spot on campus more meaningful to me than any other is its connection to some of the best months and years of my life. Many other places within and around Southwestern became dear to me over the four years I spent there, but this one bench holds a far more important spot in my heart than a mere bench would seem to deserve. It was here that my husband, Shane Baumgartner '05, and I first started dating.

The rosebushes weren't in bloom on that occasion; it was a chilly evening in November. But at other times of the year, when I would stop there on my way to classes, and eventually, when Shane asked me to marry him at that very bench May 2005, the roses were a sweet reminder of how special that place was to us. Now that we're married and living in Austin, we haven't forgotten our bench and plan to pay our respects whenever we visit campus. And who knows? Maybe someday we'll be able to get our names engraved on a plaque and see it affixed there – a way to memorialize our time at Southwestern and to remember how often there is unique meaning in the most mundane and nondescript places.