Welcome home, Class of 2023

Michael PrestonI’ll never forget the first time I made the drive. Growing up in suburban Seattle, the little former railroad town nestled amongst hills uniquely created millennia ago by forces still beyond my comprehension might as well have been on the other side of the world. To say that I had never been somewhere so remote before that weekend my junior year of high school would be a disservice to the word “understatement”.

Even at night, when my mom and I made the trek, you can tell how far away you really are. You almost have to turn off Interstate 90 after the Columbia River and just ... trust it. Trust that this is, in fact, the right road and that there is, in fact, a major research…