It’s that time again
I
was going to write about the student union election in this article. I
could have written about slating, which is when two or more candidates
work together to increase one’s chances of being elected, and the
scandal which almost saw Marcus Penny kicked out of the VP internal race.
I was thinking about discussing the allegations of slander and mismanagement.
I could have talked about Aaron Kennedy’s comment that he was “ashamed
to be part of [this year’s] election” and that “the campaign
itself was one of the dirtiest [he’d] ever seen.” However, I
would have had to mention the fact that Aaron Kennedy’s campaign
manager was passing out pieces of candy with little “vote Kennedy
for VP finance” messages stapled to the wrappers. I would have also
had to ask why Kennedy chose to put up a huge VOTE KENNEDY FOR VP FINANCE
sign behind the Smallwood Centre voting booth and why he chose to go to
Wrestlemania during the last weekend of the campaign instead of campaigning.
I was going to ask Gilbert Salam what he thought about the election...
But then I decided not to.
I guess Gilbert never got my
e-mail.
I had a dream last night. I’m sure
I dream every night, but unlike most nights I can remember last night’s
dream in vivid detail. I was sitting in my computer room, half way through
one of my last papers for this semester. My concentration was broken by
the sound of a school bell, which had suddenly appeared on the wall. I
pressed my hands against my ears to shut out the noise, but to no avail.
The ringing simply grew louder and louder. I stood up, planning to knock
the bell off the wall, but my legs were as heavy as cement blocks. I heard
a series of cracks. The water pipes had snapped and the room began to
fill up with water. I was immobile as the bell continued to ring and the
room filled up with water. I searched for a way out of the death trap
that was my computer room. Just as I was about to drown, I woke up and
mumbled: “I need an extension! Please! All I want is one or two more
days!”
Feel like you’re drowning in paperwork? You’re not the only
one. I always get frustrated at this time of the year. I think it’s
a combination of factors. First of all, summer is just around the corner.
Who wants to be stuck inside doing schoolwork when, for the first time
in months, we can see more sidewalk than snow? Secondly, it is the end
of the semester. I need a lengthy break. It’s not that I don’t
like what I’m studying. It’s just that I crave some real free
time. The idea of four months of freedom is so tempting, I can’t
help but daydream of a time when I won’t have to get up at 7:30 a.m.
to go to class. Maybe it’s something in the air that makes me lazy
and robs me of my need to work. April is the time when I start wandering
around the library, aimlessly looking for ... what? I don’t know.
Maybe some magic formula that will allow me to skip ahead to April 24
(the day of freedom). Maybe the copious amount of alcohol I have ingested
over the last seven months has finally added up and is now impeding, or
possibly eliminating, my chances of succeeding in university. Can I get
a doctor’s note for that?
Without spiraling into a ludicrous commentary on the effects of “alcohol
induced stupidity,” I do believe there is a sense of “seasonal
melancholy” associated with April. The days seem to drag endlessly
into one huge blot of blandness that will never go away, even though signs
of spring are everywhere. Maybe its better that things are like this during
exams. Who would want to study in June? Not I.
Perhaps this is a pointless thing to talk about when so many real problems
exist like student debt, poverty, depression, and ... the ELECTION. However,
I do think the environment definitely adds to the frustration and exhaustion
students feel in April, or perhaps more appropriately “term paper
season.” Maybe it’s more phenomenological than anything else.
An indescribable primal instinct of the need to escape, to move, to release
the energy we have stored up over the winter. That would describe the
swell of impatience and boredom that seems to be hanging in the air. Being
an arts student, I lack the tools to scientifically explain this conundrum.
Regardless, I know there has to be some kind of correlation between depression,
the amount of paper work due, the weather, and the unspoken agitation
contained in April.
