April 12, 2005

The Right Place at the Right Time

It’s been a busy week. We had ritual on Friday night which finished off I week. We now have two more active Lambda Chi’s to cause trouble around Athens.

The last few days have been pretty nice around here. The sun has been shining and it has been warm. Under these conditions, I love this town.

I love the bright warm days where you can walk up college street and see all the greeks hanging around outside, then through college green to see the hippies building their rope bridges between the trees. I love the squirrels and chipmunks running across the paths, and how they’ll stand right in front of you to nibble on an acorn and not move til you almost step on them.

I love the OU golf course, the intramural fields and the tennis courts. I love being outside on nice days just doing whatever. I love sitting on the porch with guys, either shooting the breeze, reading, or enjoying some suds. I love cooking out in the evenings and making a special trip to Kroger to get a nice steak for dinner.

For these reasons, I love Athens. I love being here at OU, especially in the springtime. Days like these make the whole rest of the year worthwhile. I can’t stand those nasty rainy days we have in winter quarter, where the weather is just miserable. That kind of weather just brings me down. The opposite is also true. The nice days totally pick me up and put me in a great mood.

The thing about Athens though is that it’s a place I can only see myself living at this time in my life. I couldn’t fathom growing up here, and I certainly couldn’t imagine living out my career in this Appalachian town.

I come from the suburbs of a decent sized city, so rural Athens would have been quite the change while growing up. Being this far from the entertainment and excitement of the city would have killed me… I would have to drive at least an hour and a half to catch a blue jackets game or to see a concert. I would definitely have become quite bored here.

Having a career in Athens wouldn’t be all that much fun either. For the same reasons, I wouldn’t want to be this far from the worldly things I like to do. The nearest major airport is so for away, making my dreams of traveling the world difficult. Exploring other career options would be difficult too. The only career in Athens I could see myself ever pursuing is as a professor- an occupation I’m not completely jumping for at this point.

In Athens, little changes. I’ve been here all but a few weeks of the past year. The students come and go, the seasons change, and that’s pretty much it. The lifestyle here just isn’t me at any other stage of my life. However, as a 20 year old college student, it’s perfect.

Athens is a great place to go to school. When and where else can I be immediately surrounded by almost 20,000 people my own age? Where else can I walk to just about anywhere I’d conceivably want to go? Athens has geography too- there’s a river, plenty of hills, and lakes nearby. There’s open fields for coed sunbathers, and a crazy nightlife. The roads and the buildings are both made of bricks, and the quaint small town atmosphere gives it a different feel from the suburbs.

If only for these four years, I love Athens and wouldn’t trade it for anyplace else.

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