...But now I see...

Lakehead University's campus is a huge mind-boggling maze for students in their first year of study, but each following year proves exactly the opposite. The whole area is compressed once the student deciphers efficient walking routes, building names, and alphanumeric classroom codes. I am glad to be in my third of five fruitful years at this academy in my hometown, so I'd like to think I`ve been around the block a few times. Now the campus seems so small and does not necessarily fit the picture I had prior to enrolment. As humans with brains that process thought using the five senses, constantly stewing about the campus allows one to predict, perceive, question, and mock aspects of the university atmosphere that have even the slightest real significance. Then again, there's "significant" and then there's "blog-worthy". This year has offered just as many blog-worthy observations as any year before, but I'll admit that if I had presented these ideas in past years, I would have been a hypocrite.

The first week of school shows the same tendencies each year: very few people raising hands in class for fear of (a) giving a wrong answer or (b) asking a "stupid question"; encounters with acquaintances that result in fifteen to thirty seconds of banter; and the resumption of complaint. Everyone always has something to be pissed off about at university despite the fact that they pay to attend classes. The workload is difficult and heavy, tuition, among the abundance of other fees, is expensive, and as much as anyone might wish otherwise, high school days are history. Having a beer at the Outpost with friends is cool, but that's no longer what I look forward to while on campus. It is not wrong to walk through the halls of campus looking at the ground with headphones on, just as it is not wrong to avoid conversation with passers-by. I once perceived that kind of behavior to be pompous yet I now condone it. It is a mockery to be paying thousands of dollars for a social life... a degree is a more practical use of money.