All that in three months?
Happy
times are here again, folks. It’s the Christmas holidays. Time for
family, turkey, presents, tree and snow. Sounds good, no? We have had
quite a semester to reflect on. Sept. 11, anthrax, and American flags
have been in our face so much they have almost become cliché. But
who would have thought it? After a semester like that, what, if anything,
have we learned?
Well, I guess there is a reason to be more realistic about our world,
and mortality, but how long will that last? In the end, everything returns
to normal. The airline industry gets back on track, we remember the events
of Sept. 11 with a memorial service, and we learn something we knew already:
life is totally unpredictable. All we can hope is that we’re not
in the wrong place at the wrong time. All one can hope is to live the
best one can, and take advantage of every moment.
On the university side of issues, there was the recreation fee fiasco.
That issue saw so much coverage and debate, some people began to say “it’s
only 40 dollars.” The fee gets paid, some students will actually
use the thing, others complain, and life goes on.
What I really want to use this Christmas for is appreciation. Sure there’s
a lot I could complain about. Teachers are leaving my department of study
and have yet to be replaced, and the quality of my education feels like
it’s going down. There are rumours that the old TSC was sold to Xerox
as a copy centre, and I doubt it will be long before there’s advertisements
for Coke, McDonald’s, and every other capitalist institution in our
halls and, maybe even, classrooms. Nobody seems willing to open the old
Breezeway for business, even though it is far superior to the new one
and huge numbers turned out there to party the one night it was reopened.
On top of all that (perhaps the greatest disappointment of all), the university
crime squad and SWAT team (the guards with walkie-talkies) still haven’t
found out what happened to the beloved metal university map that used
to be outside the TSC, in front of the physical education building. Oh,
the horror! The criminals must be brought to justice!
But, I digress. It is Christmas holidays after all. I’ll be watching
old movies with my family, talking with friends who spend most of their
time on the mainland, and visiting my relatives around the bay. Sounds
like good times to me. Time to sit back, relax, and appreciate the fact
that I have come one semester closer to graduation. With any luck, I’ll
have a good New Year’s Eve, write a truthful article about it, and
come back with ideas for new articles.
Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, see you at the waterfront!
Columnist’s champagne of choice for New Year’s celebrations:
Newfie Duck.
