North Central College - Spectrum Yearbook (Naperville, IL)

Page 26 text:

But definitely thankful for the following days of vacation. Thanksgiving- for sleep, good food living, for a few days of escape or endurance In the once-familiar, now partially foreign World of Before. Vacation rolls by quickly, And four days become indistinguishable As the semester gains a final momentum And flings us towards Christmas, winter, finals. A few of us hanging the greens one fall evening, lighting the tree one drippy fall night. Peiffer Hall becomes Home II for a segmentof us. Under the glare of the midnight spotlight Macbeth is prepared: stubbles becoming beards lumber becoming a set students becoming characters. And for a night, We watch, and almost believe untiljolted back to reality by a final curtain call. And, suddenly our own final curtain call becomes demanding. The library becomes a more familiar haunt- 22

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Convinced that education isn't limited to books, we participated- searching, this time to find a direction, a purpose for contribution. Forty-five minutes, a slightly sore arm, a depletion of blood- We, scarcely worse for donation, Gften scarcely giving it another thought- Yet, sometimes wondering where, to whom, why? a Part of us now a part of someone else- Because we live, you shall live also?? A Sunday morning shared with an inmate at Dunning Two hours of sleep donated to a few girls at Geneva- Because we care, you may care also? But, beyond the involvement, the giving, Comes the necessity for retreat- Into too soggy-sweet air of passing fall, walking alone under a half-lit tower, At Palos Park, fading into the hypnotic world of a dying Hre- Retreating into the depth of silence, of beauty- Oneself. Within the mystery, the tormenting questioning, The great unknown- Finding. . . P? Struggling with the question mark- Solving it with attempts at knowing God, Love, Being- And in the knowing, worshipping. Entering a required service, Expecting required conformity- And faced with a dilemma of freedom. Between the trumpet blast and hand-clapping Trying to re-establish knowing. Many of us doubtfully thankful for the freedom- 21

Page 27 text:

'Wris- Books are reluctantly opened- Occasionally opening our minds to a new idea. And the spark of enthusiasm, the desire to learn Flickers, and almost Catches hre- But too often is smothered bythe stampede of Final after final after . . . And, at last, the last head is raised, the last cramped hand released, the last blotted paper submitted- Our final bow taken- And the curtain is drawn. Behind the curtain, the stage clears- clothes flung into bulging suitcases, books dumped in cartons, cars loaded horns honking a Merry Christmas, See You Be good! I Exodus. Perhaps the buildings breathe an initial sigh of relief, As creaking floors are given a rest 23