stfx

If you ever spent time at the Hickey household, you may have noticed that in the bathroom on the main floor there was usually a stack of magazines. Usually in this stack, and almost always at the top, was the latest copy of the Saint Francis Xavier University alumni magazine.  Dan's parents went there (I think even met there), and Denis wore his X ring everyday.  This being said, there wasn't often much StFX talk around the Hickey house growing up.  I saw the magazine, and once or twice I noticed the ring on Denis' hand, but to us as kids it had very little significance.

I remember one day, when we were in our early teens, being in Dan's kitchen were it was intimated by his parents that Dan and I would probably end up going to StFX together when we were older.  I distinctly remember Dan and I looking at each other laughing and saying "yeah right, we will go to university in Calgary."  At the time we couldn't fathom the thought of not being in Calgary.  Dan and I quickly disregarded this and honestly never talked about it or gave the comment a second thought, until many years later.

Fast forward to finishing high school and it was time for me to decide where I wanted to go to university.  I didn't have a real idea of where wanted to go, and having lived away from Calgary for a number of years my first thought was of returning home.  After accepting at a couple of schools I visited some campus' and knew right away I wanted to go to StFX.  Dan also had finished high school at the same time, but he decided to take a year off before deciding where he wanted to go to university.  

During my first semester, still having never talked to Dan about that discussion so many years earlier, or for that matter even mentioning how his family had attending StFX, Dan told me he was coming to visit. He was thinking of attending and wanted to come see what the school was like.  Excited, I picked him up at the Student Union building as he got off the Acadian bus and brought him to my dorm.  I introduced him to the fellas, and being so familiar with the amazing quality of Dan's character I knew I didn't need to babysit him to make sure he made friends or was taken care of.  

After the first 24 hours there wasn't one of my friends who wasn't singing Dan's praises to me.  It's pretty normal that people only have the most positive things to say about him, so none of this was surprising. However, what did surprise me was how at the end his visit as we walked back to the SUB for Dan to catch the bus back to Halifax, how he looked at me said, "Al I am coming to StFX."  Frankly, up until that point I knew I had not been the best host. I was absent for extend periods of his visit, and wasn't doing much to try to sell him on attending, so I was not expecting he would have decided he wanted to come. Later that year he applied and was accepted.

I cannot remember the specific circumstances, but it wasn't until a couple years later during our studies how we brought up how his parents had called so many years earlier us both attending StFX together.  Looking back now it might not seem that prophetic, but we laughed at how adamant we had been about not attending and how even trying not to it ended up happening anyway.  Definitely one of those times in life that makes you believe in fate, and I know how I am lucky to have shared in such a wonderful experience in common with Dan.

Dan the G.O.A.T. 

-Alex