Most people are excited about school coming to an end. We all have our activities lined up -jobs, internships, road trips, concerts. We are eager to spend time with our friends and family, and ready to get away from classes and out of Athens.
I'm ready. I live in Pennsylvania so I haven't been home for a weekend once this entire year. But beyond the obvious things I know I am going to miss (which will be discussed next week), there are some things I am not so eager to leave behind.
There are certain idiosyncratic moments, places and aspects of college that are so representative of the college life that I know I am going to have a tough summer without them.
These are certain aesthetic campus musings that I wallow in, that I love and that remind me how happy I am to be here:
n How a good rainstorm does something particularly beautiful to our campus. It flows down Morton Hill in rippled sheets. On the shortcut behind Lincoln Hall, it makes the tree boughs so heavy that you have to bob and weave your head through them.
n How just walking to class, or down Court Street, you pass by some of the most interesting bits of conversations. Some make you wish you were part of them: OK
now name your favorite low-level fighting-game character who guest-appeared in at least one other fighting game. Some just downright puzzle you: Yeah my older brother won't be back for a while I think. He likes the ocean. Some, like the ones around Taco Bell and Wendy's, deep into Saturday night, don't even make that much sense: Woooooo! Piano Maaan! Play that song with the dah dah dah! Wooooooooweeeee!
n Sliced tomatoes, simmered beef, fresh tortillas vs. chopped onions, spiced lamb, and fresh fried falafel. How the Gyro Buggy's and the Burrito Buggy's smells compete in a culinary competition for your attention and pocket change, strategically placed as the last beacon of food before a long walk home.
n Night-lighting on campus. The campus is kept alive by lights after-hours. You can always count on a dorm room light being on no matter what hour of the night. The lamp posts of College Green scatter and hide in the trees-looking like magnified, frozen fireflies. The lights along the bike path string along like a long set of Christmas lights.
n The stacks of the library. The Internet is great, but nothing compares to being surrounded in actual, concrete text. I could wander around the stack's sections for hours, wide-eyed, inhaling that musty smell of yellowing pages. The feeling of never being able to even read a fraction of it is downright overwhelming.
n How the trees on East Green change. They were one of the things that drew me to OU in the first place. In the fall, they turn East Green Drive into the leaf pile you always imagined when you were a kid. They stand in waiting during the winter, tall and strong, bearing the onslaught of cold weather only to blossom again in the summer and shed their celebratory white powder-puff confetti.
These are the things getting me through these last few tough-to-concentrate weeks. Remember, don't look too far into the future to whereas you forget the present.
-Paul's favorite seat in the Bunch of Grapes room is the one right when you walk in, to the right. He had better not find you sitting in it. Send him an e-mail at paul.kita@ohiou.edu.
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Paul Kita
