…though I suppose the politically correct term is ‘fresh-persons’, but I’m not politically correct.
It’s incredible — the desire to people-watch today was enough to impel me to wake up two and a half hours before I actually had to. Curiousity led me to Starbucks in Aztec Center (which an obviously freshmen girl referred to as ‘Starbucks in, um, that big, um, by the big sidewalk thing between the two buildings?’ .. never mind the 27-foot banner that says ‘Welcome to Aztec Center’). People-watching is fun. Just at the moment I can pick out a few stereotypical newcomers — the cool guy with the iPod and the Lacoste shirt with the collar flipped up and the skate sunglasses, the guy trying to look as punk as they get with a Ramones shirt and strangely-done hair, the studious girl (studying what, exactly? The campus opened for business 4 hours ago…), and all around, the poor kids with their web-printed schedules trying to figure out what ‘BAM’ and ‘SS’ and ‘PSFA’ and ‘AH’ mean. And where they are. And how to get to them. And why Storm Hall is so damn far from anything else. It’s funny to me to watch some of these kids walk around like bad-asses and then abruptly change direction when they realize they’re going the wrong way.
And some things about the campus haven’t changed. I suppose they could be called ‘charming’. The sign in Starbucks here says ‘The number of people in this room shall no exceed 100.’ It’s said that for a few years now. All the student organizations are out on one half of Centennial Walkway, almost constricting to a trickle the flow of students through the area. This serves as an interesting filter. Upperclassmen take the side route in front of Student Services, and the freshmen, for some reason, seem impelled to run the gauntlet of involvement and prostelytizing Christians. At least the guy that looks like Eugene Levy isn’t out here today. Though he’s fun in small doses. Today’s prostelytizing crowd are the more passive pamphlet-hawking bunch. Deus ex Papyrus I suppose. God in the pamphlet.
And here I sit at the table by the door, with my PowerBook, tapping away. I suppose for those that don’t have the benefit of seeing my schedule taped to my door, I’ll list my classes this semester:
Philosophy 411, Ancient Western Philosophy
Philosophy 512, Political Philosophy
Philosophy 333, Philosophy of Technology
Philosophy 508, Existentialism (which Matt conned me into taking…)
Philosophy 523, Theory of Knowledge
And I have PSFA and work. Not too bad, considering. I’m off AS Council for the first time in four years. I made my goal — longest continuous sitting council member. Unless Casey has me beat by a semester. Which he well might. But I don’t think so.
And it’s fascinating — when I came here as a freshman, I didn’t really know anyone. And now, sitting at Starbucks, I can’t help but notice that I know someone that walks by almost every thirty seconds. It’s strange, in a way. But I guess that’s what involvement does to a person. Not that it’s entirely bad — it gives me more people to know and network with and hang out with. But on the other hand it gives me more people to miss after I graduate.
So. Many. People.
I miss the summer, when the campus was empty. It was so much nicer then. But out of this sea of 33,000 people, there must be a few interesting folks. We’ll see.