Welp. It’s that time of year again.
The time that after posting statuses all summer about how much we miss the ‘ville, we are finally reunited with our friends after a summer of adventures (or non-adventures). We have all gone to our first college parties, returned to classes, received our syllabi, dropped the classes we hated and added ones we wanted, and are we are now looking at our reading assignments, essays, chapters of chem and calc, thinking, “Why can’t it still be summer?”
Unless you’re like me, and sitting in bed thinking, “Why do I always get sick when I go back to school?”
But, despite homework and sickness, it’s good to be back at LSC. One of my favorite things about the first week at Lyndon also happens to be one of my least favorite things. Going to the bookstore.
The process can be a slow, hair pulling, scream inducing, eyes-pop-out-when-you-see-the-price-of-your-biology-book, but there is one person standing at the door that never ceases to put a smile on my face (no matter how much I spent on that bio book). His name is Harry. Harry used to work full time in the LSC mailroom, but now he is retired and only on campus for the first and last week of each semester, the busiest times for the bookstore. He’s just there to make sure students don’t bring their bags into the store with them.
I met Harry my sophomore year when I was working at the bookstore part time. The first thing Harry said to me was, “Hello, my names Harry. Would you like to try some soup?” He then handed me a can with a big yellow label and printing that read: ROADKILL STEW. I’m notorious for my high pitched laugh, and I could not stop laughing, surely to the annoyance of those in the otherwise very quiet bookstore.
Over the last few years I have collected enough Harry-isms to fill a shelf in my kitchen. When people come over and see my “Roadkill Stew” and “Rattlesnake eggs,” they always look at me and say “where do you find this stuff?” I just shrug and tell them Harry gave them to me.
The easy way for me to end this editorial would be to leave you with the feel good rhyme Harry gave out at the bookstore this year, “The thing that goes the farthest towards making life worthwhile, that costs the least and means the most, is just a pleasant smile.”
Always take the easy way out if the hard way is keeping you from sleeping (I would tell you that was something my Dad used to say, but it’s not. I just made up in bed, while sick).
Until next week folks,
Sam