Surely you’ve heard the saying, “The more things change, the more they stay the same”, right? This well-known phrase is attributed to the French novelist Alphonse Karr (1808-1890), who actually wrote, “The more things change, the more they are the same.” Pretty close, I’d say, considering it’s been around for well over a hundred years.

Well, how about this one: “The more things seem to stay the same, the more they’ve changed.” Don’t know if it’s original or not (according to Google, it is), but this one was penned by that great twenty-first century American philosopher, well… uh, me.

A few weeks ago I wrote about a visit to my old Alma Mater, Texas A&M University. There were two things that amazed me the most. First was how much the campus overall had changed and grown. I mean, buildings – really BIG buildings – were going up all over the place! Plus, many of the formerly unoccupied areas around the campus were now filled up. The University is practically its own city within the surrounding town of College Station.

The other thing that surprised me was how much the Quad (the Corps of Cadets dormitory area) still looked almost exactly like I remembered it from 30 years before, with the exception that the oak trees were bigger. It was remarkable! But I did, however, notice the entrance doors all had key card security devices to prevent unauthorized access. Well, that made sense. Okay, so there was one minor change; no big deal.

On the other hand…

As I was leaving the area, I happened to stroll past the band dorm one more time, and I watched as a co-ed walked up to the door, pulled out her card, swiped it and entered the building. Uh, excuse me? Girls…in the dorm? Back when I was a student, the only time females were allowed inside the dorm was during football game weekends, when family and friends could visit.

Back when I started in 1972, the big news was that females, for the first time in the school’s history, had a dorm of their own ON CAMPUS! Yep, their dorms were located, ironically enough, right next to the Corps area. I wonder whose brainiac idea that was? (Oh yeah, and every single telescope and pair of binoculars within 100 miles of the campus sold out that semester.)

Oh, sure, times have changed, and I guess there are now women in the band, just like there are now female Corps squads and companies. Don’t get me wrong, I have no problem with it, at least in theory (but it’s like open can, worms… everywhere). It’s just… well, it doesn’t match my 30-year old memories.

So, I guess things have actually changed more than I thought. I suppose the lesson here is, no matter what things look like on the outside, the fact is everything changes. Sometimes, the changes are obvious.

But other times they’re almost invisible… until you really start looking.