One of the greatest things I’ve learned here is that the opportunities I’ve actively sought out for myself that have proven to be the most rewarding, valuable, and edifying. Along those same lines, it wasn’t sitting in a lecture hall where I learned my vocation or developed my strengths as a student. I am both impressed and grateful that the List makes mention of studying on four separate occasions. At the very least, they expected me to study once a year, and I daresay I have dabbled in stress and studying a thousand times more than this prescription in my duration at the University. Well excellent, I feel more accomplished in my reading procrastination that is currently going on already!
I also find it ironic that the four “studying” occasions on the List are all grouped together near the beginning. Obviously these are menial tasks we are meant to get out of the way, or perhaps it is a foreshadowing of the nonacademic nature that I am scheming to turn my eighth and final semester into. Regardless, today is the day that I have officially studied in all of the locations that the list denotes.
#27: Study in the Dome Room: At some point in my second year my curiosity peaked as I searched for the ultimate place in which to crank out biology reading. I had heard tell that the Rotunda was actually open to the public, so I decided to take my $600, twelve-pound textbook with me and read from the sacred space, all the while looking out over the brilliant scenery of the Lawn. I hesitantly made my way up the winding staircase to the silent Dome Room and made my way to an empty carrel. The bookshelves protruding from the walls that separated the carrels around the room were lined with Frankenstein paraphernalia from comic books to early 1900s figurines to memorabilia from Mary Shelley herself in order to commemorate the book’s ninetieth anniversary. I loved being surrounded by the sublime Gothic décor and the feeling of being in the center of the core of the University’s foundation, but several tour groups passed through during my stay there and I found it wasn’t a very productive refuge for me.
#19: Study in the Fine Arts Café: Doing so might propel you in the right direction for an A- grade on an exam, but it comes with several side affects including but not limited to: large volumes of students passing through in conversation, few tables to choose from, extremely loud pop music of the B.O.B. persuasion blaring from loud speakers wherever you move, a strange and remarkably identifiable smell of organic-ness, waiting at least half an hour for an overpriced $8 grilled chicken sandwich with no sides, being dangerously close to the Lambeth fox and thus out of the way for most College students that are not taking an Art History course. Study at your own risk.
#18: Study in the Music Library: I ventured here today! It’s quaint: a very white room in the very basement of Old Cabell Hall that is actually more easily accessed via the South Lawn or the second floor of Cabell itself. There’s a roundness to the ceiling near where the help desk is which is slightly Burrow-esque in its Hobbitlike reminiscence. The AC was blasting down there to keep me awake, but I was able to hide in a comfy chair behind a column. However, these chairs are superior to all other comfy chairs. These chairs come with a revolving paisley shaped desktop which you can use or push away! It’s pretty much awesome. I didn’t explore the library fully, but there were several computers down there, tables for studying, and chairs abound; this library is a little gem and I will most definitely be back if only before and after choir practice!
#26: Read in the McGregor Room: Like almost anyone who has been in here, it is probably my favorite room at the University- probably anywhere. It has rows of lengthy tables with those picturesque green library lamps on them, fireplaces, grand rugs, and the most old fashioned and worn comfy chairs that hug you and reassure you and whisper to you that what you are doing has been done a thousand times before: not to worry, everything will work out. There are adjoining rooms and old portraits of great men, and those breathtaking bookshelves with Beauty and the Beast sliding ladders. God, I enjoy a beautiful bookshelf. And they have the oldest books in them under delicate lock and key so fragile you might crush it if you touched it, but no one does; it contains all the magic of Hogwarts stifled into one room; it makes you want to take a tea and lemon cake, curl up with no shoes on, and read until you go blind.
"I was bold in the pursuit of knowledge, never fearing to follow truth and reason to whatever results they led" - Thomas Jefferson
No comments:
Post a Comment