Since August of 2017, I’ve been surrounded by orange and blue and calls of “War Eagle.” Auburn became my second home (though Cullman will always be my real home), and the friends I made became my second family. I didn’t know how many other students from my graduating class had decided to go to Auburn, so when I first moved down there, I thought I was all by myself, that I’d have to start from scratch completely. I lived in an apartment with three roommates all older than me, most of my classes were huge lecture halls where it was hard to get to know other students on an individual basis, and I was nearly overwhelmed by the amount of freedom and choice I had when it came to spending my free time. But fortunately, I found a club early on that catered to my interests, and the friends I made there my first year laid the foundations upon which I built my confidence and determination.
Three academic years later, I’ve become the “mom friend” to younger students coming into the club, I have friends from classes as well as clubs, I’ve learned the best places to get food on or around campus depending on what people want (the Starbucks in Lowder Hall has more food options than the one in the Student Center, Naruto Cafe has the best beef and rice bowls, and Little Italy’s is the place to go for cheap pizza and a lazy atmosphere), and I’ve become more fascinated by my major (Mechanical Engineering) as the more detailed classes started showing me how to apply my knowledge in the real world. Auburn really has become my second home, a place where I can learn what it is that I really enjoy and meet people who enjoy the same things, so to have that taken away from me a month early was like a kick in the teeth.
This semester, I was supposed to work on a group project for my thermodynamics class. I was supposed to help plan a surprise 20th birthday party for one of my friends. I was supposed to stay an extra day at the end of the semester to watch three of my friends graduate. I was supposed to do a thousand everyday activities that I didn’t realize I would miss so much until I couldn’t do them any more – meeting my friends for lunch between classes, sitting in the sunshine out on the concourse, grabbing a copy of The Plainsman from the stand in the Haley Center, attending SGA meetings every Monday, running D&D sessions for more people than what’s probably reasonable, laughing with my friends about the ridiculous things our professors said or how that one insufferable guy in our class just wouldn’t shut up about the Beatles – and this semester I didn’t even have the chance to organize one last hangout with my friends before coming home because they were all quarantined.
President Gogue’s announcement that the university will be open again in the Fall gave me a lot of mixed feelings – on the one hand, I can’t wait to get back to campus and see all my friends and grab whatever free stuff the club tables on the concourse are handing out, but on the other hand I know that unless things are handled properly, the med clinic and the EAMC will be seriously overwhelmed by new coronavirus cases. But for now, I’ll be optimistic; if everything has settled down, I know what I’ll do when I get back.
I’ll invite my friends to join me for lunch at the Student Center, take one look at the line for Chick-fil-A, and suggest Steak & Shake. I’ll brave the treacherous journey through the bookstore to get my supplies, then wallow in despair at the amount of money I spent. I’ll get to campus at least half an hour before my first class because otherwise I’ll be stuck in the concourse traffic caused by other students trying to get to class and the club members who walk up and stop people to advertise their organization. I’ll go out for burgers with my friends at our favorite homestyle burger joint, stop by the Asian Supermarket to get candy that nobody else sells, and argue over who’s hosting movie night this time. I’ll shut myself up in a computer lab to work on coding and simulations for hours on end, then call someone to pick me up because I didn’t drive to campus and I stayed so late that the buses have stopped running.
Obviously all this is just optimistic speculation; most likely case is that I’ll have a huge increase in the amount of cooking I do at home to avoid going out, I’ll find ways to match my masks to my outfits, and I’ll buy some disposable gloves to keep with me so that I don’t have to sanitize my hands every time I touch a door handle or keyboard. Even then, I’m excited to be able to go back. That’s not to say I don’t enjoy being at home – I wouldn’t give up family game nights and three huge dogs and one very fluffy cat and increasingly ridiculous puns and homemade sourdough loaves for anything. I can go to the farmers’ market and grab a basketful of peaches half as big as my face. I can go to Kernel Kullman and find any popcorn I could possibly want. I used to be able to stop by Outbreak Games and add to my dice collection for cheaper than what I could get at other shops, and if they reopen a new location in the future then I’ll be able to do it again. But I can’t enjoy the smell of Indian cuisine while walking down the sidewalk, can’t drop by the average convenience store and grab a box of Konpeitō when I want it (and regular rock candy just isn’t the same), can’t run into SGA senators I met at the weekly meeting and share lunch while laughing about how boring it is to have to sit through an hour of people making minor grammatical changes to a proposed resolution.
Yes, I miss the major events, but it’s the tiny things I get to do every day that make Auburn home for me. I’ll treasure the time I have with my family during the summer, just like I treasured the extra time I had with them during the past month, but once August rolls around I’ll be nearly jumping out of my skin in anticipation of one more simple pleasure – stepping off of the bus on the first day back and looking up the hill to the Shelby Center, listening all around to the same calls of “War Eagle!”
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