By JEANETTE JOHANSSON
April 20, 2006

In only a few short weeks it will be time for summer break, something every student is looking forward to (with a few exceptions of course).

Students usually associate summer with a hot sun, blue sky, white beaches, and nothing to do but to be lazy and have fun. A few of us will have to work hard to keep our position on a team, fulfill an internship, or even work a full time job to support yourself or pay for your classes next year. And for some it will be that first step out into the “real world” as they are graduating. But still . . . it is summer!

But before we can all sell our books back and pay whatever fines we still owe for holes in the walls, left-out bed frames, candles, and one or another cat or two, there are a few things that needs to be done. Finals are to be studied for and (knock on wood) passed. Possessions must be packed up and rooms cleared out. Our beautiful campus, currently progressing toward a glorious springtime bloom, will shortly transform into a brewing trashcan populated by old TVs, refrigerators, plastic, and all kinds of other imaginable items of little use except in a dorm room in RA.

Here and there a few parents will quietly ask how someone could have collected so much junk under just nine months! At other places people will be stressing about missing airplanes, or start arguing when someone who promised you a spot in his car to NYC ends up not having room for you and leaving you hanging dry.

Up at the apartments people will be leaving junk in their rooms or in their kitchen for roommates to clean up. But worst of all are the wild cats who have barely made through the winter because of students with bleeding hearts who have been feeding them. What will they do once they’ve lost their only food source?

Then, after three four hectic days, when the last stragglers have left and our beloved cleaning department has worked their butts off, a calm air that speaks of stillness, and almost emptiness, will fall over our campus. Then will ensue a time of no celebrating at night, no impulsive volleyball games during the day, no running in the corridors, no bouncing of lacrosse balls against someone else’s floor.

Hopefully many of us will return, but some will not. People will have changed, both in appearance and in personality as we grow. One thing will be sure though; the Abbey will be there waiting for us, as always.

Hopefully we will appreciate it a bit more, take care of it a bit more, and thus enjoy it a bit more. Because this is a place very special to all of us.

Have a great summer everybody. Be safe and take care of each other!