Do you have certain songs that bring you back to a certain time and place? For me, that song is Wagon Wheel – any version will do, but the one by Darius Rucker is the closest to the one in my memory.

This song always takes me back to my years at Stout Hall on my college campus. We had a semi-recurring event called Two Stepping Night where country music was played, line dances were stomped out, and couples shuffled in their best approximation of two-stepping. Some couples were very good at the dance – others, like me and my (now husband, then boyfriend) not so much. It was a packed event filling our dorm building living room with dorm mates, members of the Baptist Collegiate Ministry, and hardcore dancers looking for any excuse to test their skills. The songs would echo the halls for hours, the windows and every door would be opened to let off the heat from that many people, and the event would be either loved or hated by those who lived in the building.

One night, a friend and I decided to learn how to do a flip and so we practiced that for most the night until we got it down ignoring everyone else. Another, my friends and I conspired to ensure that another friend’s crush had to dance with her. Other times when guys were limited, us girls would take turns leading so we all could dance. We didn’t have to rely on that strategy though, as Stout’s Two Stepping Night always had plenty of line dances sprinkled throughout the song list. Imagine – 50 to 75 or more college students in a small dance hall, most of them are lined up around the walls mingling and catching their breath from dancing, then a song like Footloose or Copperhead Road comes on – and the floor is FLOODED with nearly everyone. We would often be packed wall to wall, and those on the edges would be dancing into the furniture lining the walls.

Wagon Wheel was a favorite of the group, and it’s stuck with me these years later as a trigger to remember Two Stepping nights, which brings up all of my Stout Hall memories, and then all my fond memories of college. It brings up reminisces of a certain group of friends and experiences that I long to revisit. For many reasons, we can’t revisit those memories – we’re older, we’re living in different cities, we’re not college students looking for love any more. I don’t romanticize my former single life, but I didn’t realize when I was single that there’s a sort of magic in being single and pursuing life with very close friends. Those friends take the place that your partner later will as your primary relationship and partner in shenanigans. We can’t go back to those times, and I’m happy with where my life is, but I miss the place those friendships once had in my day to day life. And, when I hear Wagon Wheel, it takes me back to that time, to that place, and to the people who I share those experiences with.