anticipation

08.17.04, 4:51 pm

There is something comforting about this campus. It has a different air, a different aroma than the rest of Murray. I felt it as soon as I crossed Main Street and hit the sidewalk along 15th, by Sparks Hall.

I'm sitting on a bench in front of Blackburn. The building shades the afternoon sun. It is quiet today. There are birds in the magnolias. There is a car starting or a door shutting or the whir of a bicycle clicking by or sometimes somebody talking as they pass. But for the most part, the noise is distant. There is still a bubble around this campus.

It isn't necessarily sacred or holy, but there is something about it that just feels right. Maybe it's just the stillness that has settled here for months.

But tomorrow, the first batch of students will seep onto campus for early check-in. And this weekend, everyone arrives. The buildings won't be empty, at least not as still as they have been.

Tuesday is when it all really comes alive. Classes begin. The sidewalks will be busied with students who haven't yet figured out where they are going and students who haven't yet understood that come two weeks from now, they will quit going to those classes. But the quiet murmur that abides here now will nevertheless be heightened to a roar over the next week. But the comfort that I find here right now will not be drowned out. Were it not for the absent roar, I might not notice this murmur.