You've heard of army brats. Well, I was a Ricks College brat. Dad started teaching at Ricks when I was eight. Also, my mom worked at Ricks for over ten years.

Many of the memories of my youth are memories of Ricks:

• art, music, and dance continuing ed classes
• beautiful and inspiring messages from Ricks faculty and presidents
• beautiful and inspiring female students, until I was about 14
• beautiful and inspiring male students, after I was 14
• running around the halls of first the Spori and the Old Gym, then the Hart and the Manwaring, finally the Smith and the Clark

As a child I’d especially loved to meander down a Manwaring Center hallway with the pictures of the Ricks Women of the Year. They looked so inspiring. I dreamed of being them.

As a Rick co-ed, I studied the same pictures. Admittedly, I was somewhat less awestruck. Nonetheless, the pictures from 1978 and 1979 were friends I admired. I had become one of the Ricks co-eds I admired as a child.

A decade later, as an adjunct faculty member I again walked that hall. A name and face jumped out: Donna Jean Luke. I knew that face, and I knew that name. Who was the beautiful young woman? My heavens, could it be? Yes, it was. That was Donna Jean Kinghorn, now a grandmother of the new family in our ward. Debbie and Brian Kinghorn had just moved into our neighborhood with their two toddlers. I grinned at their wrestling matches with their children during meetings. Now gazing here at me was their grandmother, but as a starry-eyed 19 year old with dreams of her life ahead. A rush of vision filled my heart—their generations, my generations, multitudes of generations going forth into the world.

I love that hall and what it represents to me. It’s a hall representing the past—past hopes and dreams. It’s a hall representing the future—future hopes and dreams. My young parents walked that hall. My new husband and I walked it. My kids and their spouses now walk it.

Reverently, I have to ask myself, which Woman of the Year have I taught? Who are these granddaughters, daughters, and future grandmothers I teach every day? What are their generational dreams and hopes? What are their limitless futures and their eternal pasts? Can I presume to be their teacher?

Thank you to Ricks and BYU-I for being my teacher and continuing to teach me.