Professor Alex Barron is known on St. Edward’s University campus for being just that—a beloved professor who has been teaching here for eight years.

She is the assistant professor of University Programs and the director of the Freshmen Studies program on campus. She teaches a variety of cultural foundation classes as well as Capstone, an occasional Women’s Studies Service Learning class and the Freshmen Studies Global Film and Literature lecture class.

For those who do not know her, Barron is known as the woman with the words “Other days will come” tattooed in black on her left forearm.

Those words are in the opening line of Pablo Neruda’s “Love Sonnet 99,” a poem that was in Neruda’s collection of 100 Love Sonnets published in 1960 when he was 56.

When Barron first read the poem, she was amazed at how much it resonated with her. “This person gets me,” Barron said.

Barron also describes herself as not being a “visual” person at all. “I experience things through words,” she said.

The words in the poem have a very special meaning to Barron. She got the tattoo in remembrance of her partner of 12 years, Camile Pahwa, who died from cancer at age 34 in 2010.

Pahwa was not really one for tattoos.

“She would have been totally annoyed,” Barron joked.

Nevertheless, these words became a beautiful tribute to Pahwa. Barron read the entire sonnet at Pahwa’s memorial service.

“It expressed perfectly what I was feeling and thinking,” Barron said.

Barron finally got the tattoo in April 2011, almost a year after Pahwa’s death. “It felt exactly right and perfect,” she said.

Choosing to place the tattoo on the visible part of her arm was a conscious decision.

“I wanted to be able to see it,” Barron said. “I got it much more for me than for anyone else.”

Pahwa’s family, along with Barron’s family, liked the tattoo as soon as they saw it. “They remembered what it means to me,” Barron said.

Every once and a while, students ask Barron about her tattoo. She responds by saying that the words are in a poem; she does not feel the need to share the entire story every time.

“Getting something that has such a personal meaning can make you vulnerable,” she said. “But you can say or not say anything.”