North Central College - Spectrum Yearbook (Naperville, IL)

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

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

Page 28 text:

.Ky 'ff W f. '12 .9 fm lim-an Marred desks are left alone. But, eventually the scuffed, scarred, smudged hollowness- settled and silent, Wait for Return. But first, anticipation, celebration relaxation. And the needles fall from the tree, the fragments of shattered balls reflect the glow of fading lights. And a unique phase of North Central's education begins- 24 lndividualization at its peak. And some of us work, igllx ak , J xx ,IV ia