A Beautiful Spring Day On A College Campus
I’ve got the good fortune of working near a college campus. OK, so it’s in the middle of a city, but I believe the environment is the same as just about any college campus across the country. Kids hurrying around. That new, electric feel with the beginning of each semester. Lots of young people who haven’t been beaten down by life yet.
My dad is a professor, and I grew up in chi-chi college towns my whole life. So maybe my fondness for the college environment is just a learned trait. Maybe it’s just what I’m used to. But I don’t think so.
Take today, for example. It is absolutely gorgeous outside. The “hazy, hot and humid” DC summer is still a long ways away, and everything in the city seems to be bursting with new life. Trees, flowers, people, everything seems to be waking up from a long sleep. And that’s never true more so than on a college campus. No matter what time of day I walk through the university – except maybe before 10:00 in the morning – the whole place seems to be exploding with students doing all kinds of different, interesting things. Sure, a lot of them are studying. But there are Frisbees everywhere. Kids eating, flirting, or just talking. Today I saw a couple of guys practicing tight-rope walking on a tether strung between two trees, just a few feet above the ground.
And it’s not like some guys I know, who just like walking around on days like today because of the tremendous amount of female skin that’s available for viewing. No, I’m a 42-year old guy. I’ve been a lawyer for 15 years or so, I’ve got a wife of five years I love dearly, and a 10-month old son who makes sure I never get enough sleep. It’s not about the sex. It’s about the energy.
You see, at this point in my life it might be really easy for me to settle into a low-energy orbit around my life, to give up the
really vital things I used to do when I was younger. In fact, I’ve got to confess, that’s exactly what it feels like I’ve been doing this past
winter.
But today it feels like I’ve got a new breath of life. Just being around the students on a day like today makes me feel 10 years younger, and it makes me want to shake off this winter coat of the adult life I’ve been wearing for the past few months. And the best place I know to rejuvenate like this is on a college campus, on a day like today, when all those kids just can’t help but share their own joy of life with you.