I don't remember anymore why I was searching for information about Jesuit priest and 17th century explorer Jacques Marquette, the university's namesake, but I do remember sitting in my office searching for background information when I made a really cool discovery: Père Marquette and I were both born in Laon, a city in the north of France. Years later, I would finally return to our birthplace, a trip that lives in me in ways I never thought it would.