Senior Hurdles

Author: Alison Hertel Associate Editor

Just as the end of the semester approaches, I finally feel settled in, back in the swing from my semester spent abroad. I would like to hang out and enjoy college, but no; they want me to write lots of very long papers. I know I'll get them done, but I just don't want to sit down and write them. I would prefer it if, instead of final papers and exams, we could have reflective discussions about how the semester went and what was learned. Maybe these could even be group discussions held over hot chocolate and cookies or tea and muffins.

Maybe all the paper and thesis writing is making me delusional. I yearn for a simpler time when recess was king. What do I miss about elementary school, you ask? I'll give you the top five (okay six) things I miss.

For starters, my mom packed my lunch, and she wrote my name in bubble letters on the bag. (College bag lunches are good, but they aren't packed with love.)

Another nice thing was snow days — we didn't have very many (the superintendent of schools for my town was from Canada), but when we did, it was very exciting.

I loved art class. We should all have a mandatory creative time built into the day. I think it keeps me sane. Note: I am not taking an art class this semester.

After-school snacks were a wondrous invention. I went to my babysitter's house everyday after school. I took a big yellow bus to the end of her street, walked the quarter mile to her house and settled into a comfy armchair to watch General Hospital (yes, I watched the soaps in elementary school). Sometimes I watched after school specials instead of the soaps. Did you watch those? I loved them. Okay, random tangent — back to snacks. Auntie (what I called, and still call, my babysitter) would bring me a glass of soda and a snack. Sometimes the snack was freshly baked banana bread, sometimes it was pretzels, sometimes it was grapes — it was always good. Maybe the dining halls should open for afternoon snacks.

Stickers. Didn't you love it when your teachers put stickers on your homework, spelling tests and reports? Perhaps we could start a movement for professors to put encouraging stickers on our papers.

Field trips. We don't take enough of those now. In fact, a field trip is in order right now. I want a big yellow bus to pull up to Adirondack Circle and take me away to some museum, aquarium or natural wonder for the day.

Unfortunately, the sight of my inordinately large stack of library books sitting on my windowsil, blocking the sunlight, has snapped me back to reality. There is no big yellow bus. I am a college student. Elementary school was a long time ago. And you know what? It had some negative points — it wasn't all fun and games. In fact, I didn't like it very much. Here I go again. I'll give you some negatives of elementary school — I know in your mind everything was rosy, but I'm willing to bet that memory has glossed over some rough points.

First and foremost, kids are mean. At least in college, if you don't like someone you keep it to yourself (or your 30 closest friends). In elementary school, you might try to convince everyone to stop talking to the hated person. You might even pass around a petition for people who hate that person to sign. That's just plain mean.

Second, we all went through gawky, awkward stages. I was a foot taller than everyone. I'm still tall, but it was really rough then. It's not cool when you get confused for a teacher in the seventh grade or when you have to talk the person at the movie theater into letting you in as a kid because they don't believe you.

We had to take handwriting. I guess I should have paid more attention. My cursive is still nothing to write home about. In fact, when I do write home, I don't use it.

Okay, all reminiscing will stop — I am a college student. Elementary school was many, many years ago.

Ooh, one more thing. Do you remember having to walk around in lines? I'm glad that we don't ever have to walk around in single file lines anymore. Actually, we do still stand in lines all the time (think Freeman at peak lunch time or Proctor at about 6:20 p.m.). And we still get pretty mad if someone cuts us. Maybe college is more like elementary school than I thought.