Spire 2022

From a young age, I was always fascinated with stories. It really didn’t matter what type of story was being told. It could be fictional, biographical, cultural history… any story can be interesting. It just depends on how that story is being told. As I’ve grown older, I’ve come to embrace writing as a form of personal expression and as a means of sharing my own story with the world. No, it’s not a story that’s caught on or become viral, but it is a story that’s been told day-by-day over the past couple of decades thanks to the blog I keep called The Confusing Middle . It’s blogging that has allowed me to not only tell my own story, but to explore the stories of others. Last year, as we approached the 100th anniversary of Bluefield University, I thought it might be interesting to reach out to fellow Bluefield alumni and ask them each to share their stories on my blog. As of this writing, there have been 27 individuals who were willing to share their stories to celebrate Bluefield. For several months, once each week, I was able to share the stories of former Bluefield students. While it’s true I wanted to share these Rams’ stories with the world, selfishly I wanted to read their stories for myself. I wanted to know how life at (then) Bluefield College impacted them. I wanted to know if Bluefield’s influence was as profound on the lives of others as it had been on my life. Honestly, my first days in Bluefield were nothing special. I began life as a freshman with no idea what life had in store for me. I had come from a somewhat large high school where I had been able to blend into the background. I never made waves and was no one important. And I liked it that way. Despite the drastic change in school size, life at Bluefield College in the fall of 1998 proved incredibly similar to life in high school. And that was 100% my doing. Sure, I attended a few activities that had been put together by the Student Union Board, but I never really put myself out there. For an entire semester, I never made myself vulnerable enough to form relationships with the people around me. Reflecting Light: Alumnus Aaron Peck on Sharing Bluefield Stories

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