By FLETCHER DEAL

Piedmont College started with a dream to provide education to those living in this area where higher education was difficult to come by. 

It began as a repurposed patchwork of hotels and farmhouses accepting crops and barter for tuition and giving students education rooted in simple faith. 

Today, much has changed at Piedmont. We’ve grown into the 21st century. We’ve matured into a school that offers an excellent education in beautiful surroundings. 

We may be stuck in the 20th century in terms of a paper-heavy system, instead of a more effective online system, but the school seems to be trying to work through this with the help of its students. 

Piedmont’s spirit follows us every day on this campus. Everything here has its story, its reason for being, and each of these stories have their hand in deciding our present. 

These stories also show us that we decide Piedmont’s future as well as our own. My true hope is that one day in the future, some crazy student obsessed with history like me will stumble on the story of our era here, an era filled with change. 

My class alone has gone through three school presidents, the opening of the New Bedford, Plymouth and Ipswich dorms, new types of majors and minors and the first elections of a new student government. 

These moments, the feelings these moments inspire and the experiences these moments gave us, define our time at Piedmont, but they aren’t the school’s spirit. 

Instead, the spirit of Piedmont is us. 

We students, faculty, staff and administration from the past, present and future are the school’s spirit. 

We give Piedmont life, we give it a soul, and we push it headlong into the future. This is the last article for the Spirit of Piedmont. 

I have given you all the history I know. Now it’s your turn. Make the most of your time here, make memories, make your own mark on Piedmont’s history because you are Piedmont’s Spirit.