I, Liberty Brick

Written by Victoria Kelly         

I spent my early life much in the matter of any other brick, clay being fashioned and fired. But I will carry a special message in my capacity as a brick on the Liberty Walk at Hillsdale College.

My journey to this special station starts when a friend of the College decides to make a donation of at least $1,000 to help the College thrive. Many of my predecessors have already been lain around campus and at Hillsdale’s John Anthony Halter Shooting Sports Education Center, preserving the memory of many kind benefactors who have contributed to the educations of generations of students, to their scholarships, to the buildings on campus, and seemingly countless other endeavors that all build an education together.

Of course, these brothers and sisters of mine are not the only bricks on campus. I have what seems like innumerable cousins: the bricks of the Alumni Walk, the 1844 Society Walk, and several other walks too. All mark special relationships to the College. But we Liberty bricks mark the ties to donors who, for the most part, have no previous affiliation with Hillsdale yet share a love for its mission. 

When the donation is made, my new life starts. I will have up to 42 characters, divided into 14 characters each spread across three lines. It’s exciting for me as I wait to be chiseled to find out what my message will be! Will it be the name of my generous benefactor or one of their loved ones? Maybe it will be a Bible verse or reference, or an invocation that God bless America. Perhaps I will be a special message to current students or even one of the special rare bricks inscribed with a different alphabet.

Once that decision has been made, I and the small group of other bricks whose story has begun that month will be inscribed. Our physical transformation takes place nearby in Hillsdale at Jarsa & Company Stone Engraving, and then we will be laid in the ground at Hillsdale.

My forerunners have been accumulating more and more over the decade, with a spike coming since 2013. A few more add to our midst every month. We know that we matter: people who have helped make Hillsdale what it is get to have a little bit of themselves or their message here. And the students who walk overhead, whenever they take care to look, are reminded a little bit of the many parts that have worked together to create this legacy whose workings they join.

Victoria Kelly, ’24, is a proud country girl from upstate New York. On the rare occasion she is not studying or hanging out with all her favorite Hillsdale people, you can find her debating politics, practicing Tae Kwon Do, or swing dancing, preferably outside under the stars.

Published in May 2024