Working on a college campus, it’s easy to get caught up in the
momentum of the collective student psyche. Yesterday when I was going to my
car, I passed a girl who was walking up the hill at a rapid pace, openly
weeping. Like, not wiping her eyes or hiding behind shades or acting like she
was having an allergy attack. Just bawling. (I checked, she was okay). Then I
drove up the same hill and had to brake for a group of 3 people running – sprinting
around the parking lot, whooping. Literally whooping. Today is the last day of
finals.
Tomorrow the parking lots will be empty except for some
castaway lamps and beer bongs that didn’t make it into the fleet of minis with cryptic
greek messages streaked across their retreating windows.
I’ll watch them drive off through my office window, and I’ll
get that quick flash of adrenaline because YES,
it’s a beautiful day and we’re young and we’re beautiful and we’re free! I’ll think
up a way to take the rest of the day or week off, and I’ll call upon my peeps
to meet me at the beach/pool/bar and kick off another spectacular san diego summer!
But when I grab my car keys from my mess of a desk, I’ll
catch sight of my list, scratched onto the last blank page of the steno pad
full of lists. And I’ll see words like fiscal year end and MCO and construction
schedule and enrollment and summer program and request for time off and ………oh
yeah. I already had my turn.
So I’ll stay here, in my office, and I’ll enjoy the beautiful
summer after 5 and on weekends. And I’ll always find a parking space and I’ll
never have to wait behind someone counting nickels for a coffee and there will
be far less eye candy to behold on campus.
But I’ve got their beer bongs.
4 comments:
Definitely. You definitely have the last laugh. Because what is sun and beach and pool and bar when you have a beer bong?? Chopped liver, daswhatitees.
Love you.
Ellie
I love this, J. I can totally still feel that post-finals euphoria, and this post stirs it up for me for sure. Man, that feeling was priceless! And so intense that it still, yes more than 20 years later, makes me anxious to meet you at the beach/pool/bar. Too bad I too have a seemingly never-ending to-do list, and that it's only 8:50 am on a Tuesday.
I am in the market for some lamps tough, so grab any goodies that you see, k?
xoxo,
Beth
I can so appreciate this post as a happy resident of a college town (sans the beach and pool bar) The end of finals and the mass exodus takes me right back to "the good ol' days" where I was headed from dorm to beach in a matter of hours. Then reality sets in and I end up basking in the joy of all the downtown parking :)
Guess that makes me a grown-up.
I never experienced this "college is out for the summer euphoria" as I would simply drive my sorry butt 30 minutes from my community college to my hometown of Quincy, WA (where what was waiting for me was a population of 6,500 people, two stoplights, a McDonalds, a Subway and no "big city" life/culture to speak of... and DEFINITELY no beaches or pools or bars.. Ha ha!). So I get to experience this feeling on Friday afternoon here in San Diego when I feel FREEEEEE from work for the weekend and can just forget about those never ending to-do lists... at least for two days anyway. LOL! Love this post. :)
Drew O.
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