September always means one thing to students: back to school. And along with this comes all the excitement and stress of classes, books, room mates, and of course Dining Commons food. I’m about halfway through my Westmont experience and this will be my fifth semester of living on campus. Two of these semesters were spent in the same exact room I currently live in with the same exact people. This enough is cause for a sense of anxiousness that drives me insane. I didn’t realize until I moved in on the hottest day of the year (always the day we move in it seems) how much of a bad idea it was. Not only are most of my classmates in Europe having the time of their life, but I am living on campus with the same people and the same daily grind which includes reading, reading, writing, and more reading.
Upon returning to this familiar place there were also some surprises that were quite unfortunate. First of all, the “Stairs to Mordor” were dismantled. WTF Westmont?! For those who are not familiar with these stairs, let me tell you, they are the life and blood for lower campus residents. It is our way of getting to the DC and upper campus for that matter. We now have to walk around the unObservatory and uphill and then, depending on the route you chose, walk across woodchips. C’mon, really Westmont?! There is little hope our stairs will return soon, but I am still holding on to the thoughts of possibly a makeshift bridge of some sort. Maybe a “Bridge to Terabithia”? (I hope so)
Second was that there is no longer a “Tasty Tuesday” lunch anymore. This was particularly upsetting because I looked forward to this every week. Especially build-your-own wok — now that was the shit. And now they have tacos every Tuesday and Thursday instead of only on Thursdays. While that is good, I would rather have my “Tasty Tuesday” dammit! They also started this whole made-to-order salads thing and honestly, I’m not impressed. Just because you can put a salad in a fancy bowl does not make it less of a salad. If you gave me sushi or a teriyaki platter in a bowl then hell yeah, but salads? C’mon now.
The third woe is not exclusive to this semester, but has been a constant woe at Westmont. Our internet is terrible. The server is down for hours at a time every couple of weeks and then when it is up and running it is slow. I would not be so concerned about this if they were not charging me a technology fee every semester. I am paying for my internet experience to be terrible — WTF?! Watching a half hour TV show takes you an hour because it will start and stop every couple of minutes due to the internet connection. It is frustrating to say the least.
All this being said, I am finding it hard to be here. To be in this moment right now. But that’s our constant struggle. How can we be immersed in the present when we long for somewhere else. When we enter into communities, we surrender things. We give up some freedoms and luxuries. And often times we check out. But I’m finding things I’ve never found here before. There are people here I’ve been blind to. There are things happening here and they will not wait for me. I can either be here or not. And that is the choice we are constantly presented with.
