As the signs of the new school year are all around us, it is still hard to realize my summer here is finally over. Since moving to college those long years ago, I have never considered moving back home during the summer break. The idea of spending a summer without television and sharing a bed on the living room couch with pets may have been part of it, but the draw of Madison has been too strong for me to leave.
Summers here in Madison are peaceful, with places like State Street seemingly empty except for street people, eccentrics and senior citizens trying to escape Florida's muggy heat. The days are lazy, the nights are warm and there is no better time to relax at the Memorial Union and reflect on everything and anything.
But all good things must come to an end. Once again, the sidewalks are littered with furniture and cardboard boxes, back-to-school commercials are played constantly on television and students start to bring suitcases full of money to the bookstores in order to purchase a couple of books. Once again, the students of Madison return to State Street. There is an undercurrent of excitement around campus, as freshmen begin exploring a bigger world without parents and friends, try to reconnect with the friends they have not seen or talked to in months. In the gray area between the end of summer and the beginning of the school year, Madison comes alive.
Personally, I welcome the beginning of this new school year. Even though summer vacation is a vacation from stress, classes and responsibility, nothing in the summer compares to the student section during football games, the opportunities of Welcome Week and the first few weeks of classes where you do not have to worry about your grades.
The weather is still warm, students still have the time and energy to go out, the opportunities to get involved in student life are still available and classes are still interesting, educational and fun. True, the beginning of school may not be as fun as planning a skydiving weekend or spending an entire week laying out on the roof trying to achieve the perfect tan, but it is the perfect time to meet people and have fun all over campus before exams mandate long hours of study.
Last year was thrown into limbo by the chain of events beginning with Sept. 11, but we have had a year to grieve and process. Happening almost immediately in the school year, it seemed to loom over the minds of world leaders and students alike for the rest of the year. Life on campus, at least in the beginning, was somber and cautious.
The world is an uneasy place right now, with the prospect of another war being discussed more and more. With current events in mind, a large university such as Madison is probably one of the best places to be right now.
Conflicting philosophies are constantly being tossed back and forth around here, and as long as one keeps an open mind, one will come away enlightened, wiser and with an expanded world view. The world needs people who are willing to find new answers and embrace different ideas, and you can find those people here.
Finally, I would like to wish every one of you a successful, educational and exciting school year. School years have a habit of blurring right by, and soon all of us will be in the feared eal world."" So enjoy your time in Madison this year to the fullest, and try to learn as much as you try to party. Madison is a big place full of interest and excitement, so I would like to conclude with the last words of my boyhood heroes Calvin and Hobbes by saying, ""Let's go exploring.""
