George Washington University - Cherry Tree Yearbook (Washington, DC)

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ONCE AGAIN . . . The alarm rings signaling the beginning of another semester. You roll over in bed, turn it off, and head over to the bathroom to wash the last remnants of summer vacation out of your eyes. Without even realizing what you are doing, you shower, dress, stuff some food into your mouth, grab a pen and an old notebook and head out to your first class in four months. Yes, you once again must enter the world of academia. You seat yourself in the back row of one of C buildings larger classrooms so you can see the whole room. You notice some familiar faces, and prepare yourself for the arrival of the professor. The profes- sor enters and begins with the usual opening dia- logue. It seems as though every teacher starts the first class off in the same fashion. Just once you would like to see it done differently. The opening diatribe com- pleted, the teacher proceeds to hand out those little 3 X 5 index cards on which you are to put down your name, rank, student number, and past educational history. These collected, the syllabus is then passed out. This is where the teacher has supposedly charted out for you the time table for the course. He fails to mention however, that the only day that he will stick to that time table is today, and that from now on he will either fall way behind or decide to cover five more chapters of the textbook. If you are lucky, the teacher will dismiss the class early because he has the same distaste for the first day of classes that you do. But for the unlucky ones whose teachers believe that a wasted minute of class time is a cardinal sin, you open up your notebook and proceed to take notes about the sexual habits of Aborigines in the jungles of Australia. Finding this less than enthralling, your mind begins to wander off into thoughts of more exciting things. Every so often you drift back to the lecture just to make sure you are not missing anything important. Finally after an hour and ten minutes of straight lecturing, the teacher finishes. You let out a sigh of relief and head towards your second class, where the process will be the same. You spend your class-time looking around at all the other people in the class. There are always those people who think that every word the professor says is gold, and write down the lecture verbatim in their notebooks. Then there are the people who listen for a ' while, dream, and then listen again. Finally, there are the students who pre- tend to write something down but are really more interested in whether the person in front of them is involved with someone, and whether that gorgeous creature is busy this weekend. Classes done for the day, you head back to your room feeling relieved because you made it through the first day. Once in the peace and quiet of your room you sit back and reflect upon the day’s activi- ties. All in all, your classes weren’t that bad or that hard. Looking out your window at the rush hour traffic heading home, you think to yourself, “Wow, the year really has begun, and I’m ready for it, well, almost ready for it.”

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You eat, do the dishes, and sit down to watch the 7:30 repeats of M A S H on Channel 5. Even though you have seen this episode seven times already, you still laugh at the screen as Hawkeye and the rest of the cast go through their zany activities. As the last joke finishes, you decide to look over your syllabus for each of your classes to see what your worklo ad is going to be like this semester. After you make the unfortunate discovery that 23 books are required this semester, you reluctantly move “BOOKSTORE” to the top of your list of things to do. With a check in your wallet, you head down to the basement of the Marvin Center and enter the book- store. In front of you is mass hysteria. There are lines everywhere. Once again, because you procrastinated, you must spend hours doing something that should take minutes. After walking through the maze of books, you collect all the ones you need. Of course there are those that are either sold out or not in stock yet. By now the line has grown as long as 1-95, but you have come this far already, so there is no turning back. Finally, you reach the cashier and as she rings up book after book, you wonder how much it will all cost. With the push of the last button, the total pops up on the screen $158.53. Begrudgingly you reach for that check in your wallet and proceed to write it out. You think to yourself, “Boy I could buy 50 Bone burgers with that or 25 albums.” Anything seems like a better investment than a book entitled, All You Wanted to Know About Keynesian Economic Theory, But Were Afraid to Ask. You exit the bookstore thinking. “Why did I buy all these books. I ' m probably not going to use half of them anyway. I wonder it I ' ll be able to sell them back at SERVE. After getting back to your room and setting them up on the shelf, you decide that at least they make you look intellectual. After two weeks of classes have gone by, you realize that if you leave them in mint condition they will be worth more when you sell them at SERVE, but you must remember that one is also at college to get an education. You decide this is as good a time as any to start your studies. You take your books, notebooks, and pens and head over to the library. When you reach the library you notice that it is no longer called the G.W.U. Library but the Geiman Library. This inspires you to turn over a new leaf and really do some heavy studying. Driven to study, you head up to the fourth floor fish bowl and proceed to get totally enthralled by the Freudian reasons for having an Oedipus complex. After an hour passes you become slightly restless and head out into the hallway to take a well deserved break. Of course, three of your friends have the same idea, so finding something to do is not hard. You sit down in the lobby and say hello to your friends who pass by and lament how long you have been studying and how much more you have to do. Finally after the fifteen minute break that turned into a one hour party, you decide it is time to return to those lonely books. Later, you leave the library feeling proud of yourself for actually doing work and not going to the Program Board’s showing of Electric Horseman. 27