Today, like the past couple of days, has been spent almost entirely at the computer lab. Not just because I need to use a computer and my laptop is still in repair, but also to escape the heat. You see, it has been  really hot here lately and my room has become unbearable during the day. And the computer lab? Is air-conditioned. The computer lab is on the other side of campus (that I live on), and so I have been spending quite some time on campus, studying, eating, walking around and riding my bike.

I had hardly ever been here before I moved on campus, because it is the sciences campus and all my classes took place downtown. So even now that I live here, I usually just walk to the bus stop to catch the bus going downtown. I have gotten to know the campus a little better, though, knowing where all the important buildings are, and I don’t get lost in the concrete jungle anymore.

Taking classes in the downtown part of the university is different from the sciences campus. Mostly because there is no downtown campus. The buildings are all over the old part of town, and we college students share the area with tourists and shoppers alike. Everything is more spread out, and there isn’t much of a community feel to the university downtown. The sciences campus is an actual campus, though, and all the buildings on campus are university-owned and used by various departments. And whenever I go places during the day, the campus is crowded with students, walking or riding their bikes to classes, to the cafeteria, etc.

Not only have I been taking classes downtown, I have not actually taken a class since the fall semester, and I have not taken a mandatory class in over a year. I wrote my thesis at home, and have studied for my exams at home and in the library, so I have spent very little time in the actual English & Spanish department buildings. I have not felt very student-y in a while.

And today, riding my bike across campus, carrying a backpack full of books, studying at the computer lab, eating at the cafeteria, I just felt so much like a college student. There were so many like me. I was by myself and I knew I was not one of them (a science major) but at the same time I felt like one of them.

In just 15 days, I will be taking my very last exam, after which I will be completely done with anything college-related, and I will no longer be a college student. I will have to move out of student housing, find a job, and start living like an adult. Until then, I will be cherishing every single one of my last days as a college student.

What do or did you love about being a college student?