McGraw-Long Hall will never be the same again… for one thing, over the summer, JMU physically altered the building’s appearance, as can be seen in the picture at left. For those of you who haven’t seen what McGraw-Long looked like before, what they did is paint the wood part of the outside a darker brown than was there before. Inside, things have changed, too, as I visited McGraw-Long again on August 2, 2000. They have installed a new security system in the building, where you now have to use your JAC card to get in instead of a key. Plus, now if you leave the door open too long, an alarm will go off. They also removed the sinks and the counter from our old bathroom. Yes, the bathroom counter where we had shaved, brushed, and washed is now gone, to be replaced with a new one. But these physical changes pale in comparison to a bigger point – a point which we all knew about on May 5 (the paint job and other work was a surprise). The magic that made MGL special to us was gone. The people are gone, and thus even if I were to return to MGL, it just wouldn’t be the same… it’s really not the building that makes living somewhere special. It’s that human touch that only we can add to the building that makes it so special. What would McGraw-Long be like without Gee, Kevin, Chris, Naomi, Kim, Rob, Bunty, Brandon, Ashla, Samantha, Renita, Michelle, and all the others? The answer is just as I found it today. Dark, quiet, almost to the point of making you nervous. The only people to be seen or found were workmen installing the security system, who so kindly let me tour my old hall. But you know what they say – when you close a door, another door opens. And next year, I will be in another residence hall, Potomac Hall, with a whole new set of people to help create the magic anew…
