Northeastern State University - Tsa La Gi Yearbook (Tahlequah, OK)

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wer Sere | Meeting on the Crossroads of College Life After Hours

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dorm after 2 a.m. You hold on to your key constantly to avoid locking yourself out in a towel and having to search for a junior counselor to let you in. You learn how to store enough clothes for nine months in a tiny closet and five drawers the size of shoe boxes. You train your mind to sleep through blasting stereos, but to wake up at the sound of the alarm. You carry an umbrella even when the weatherman says ‘‘Only a slight chance of rain today.” But there’s always a friend down the hall who’s ready to listen and t o share. You grow up a lot, realizing that missing your parents isn’t immature, it’s only natural. Although you found out the difficult way, it doesn’t always pay off to read ten chapters of biology the night before the final. You learn self-discipline after having been engulfed in the sweet euphoria of ‘freedom.’ You screamed freedom at last, and suddenly you find yourself sighing, “| want to go home’”’. On the economic and convenient side, dorm living saves on gas and physical energy. Instead of driving 50 miles, you walk to class. Healthy habit, they say. People. You meet lots of them, some become your friends and some of them don’t. From these encounters you become adept at dealing with enemies and keeping good friends. And most of all, you mature. You learn to accept the consequences for your decisions, and to take responsi- bility for them. 1. When the lights went out in the dormitories on one stormy night, some students found that studying under the emergency lights suited their purpose. 2. Sometimes a little television and snacks go along with studying. 3. The college diet, junk food, is always found, along with endless pages of notes to review and mountains of equations to solve. Dorm Life 25 er

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You put in a full day of classes. Right after supper you hit the books. About 8 p.m. the print of the text- book looks much finer than before, and you know if you try to wade through one more line of “Paradise Lost’ you are going to violate quiet hours by scream- ing. You decide that yeah, you, too, deserve a break today. Since the closest Big Mac is thirty miles away, you opt for a substitute panacea. Like most college towns, Tahlequah has a number of places where students go, as they say in the broc- hures, ‘‘to balance the academic experience with an active social life.” Some students prefer a quiet con- versation with a few friends over a pitcher or two, or three. Others will seek a rowdier environment — where the music would drown out the landing noise of a squadron of Concorde jets, and guys in Greek T- shirts dispense suds by the gallons. According to one local publican, in an average beer bust about eight kegs containing 15 and one-half gal- lons of beer are consumed. Multiplying that by two, since there are busts at most places twice a week, then multiplying that figure by a 16 week work semes- ter, it is not unreasonable to conclude that around 4,000 gallons of beer could be consumed in the course of a semester. That is, of course, only at one tavern. Some students are into polyester and disco, others prefer denims and Waylon and Willie. Of course there are others who don't particularly care for any of the types of entertainment mentioned. Some will spend free evenings watching flickering images on the lounge TV, wondering if Mork and Min- dy’s faces should be blueish. { Some will go to the BSU for a game of ping pong, or . for a fellowship service. Movies at the Dream Theatre or in the University Center let some step into other realities for an hour or so. Perhaps the time will be spent in the dorm quad playing a serious game of spades and eating popcorn. And a few people will get their kicks studying. We haven’t many, but there are rumors. The commonality of all these diversions is that the time belongs to the student, and nobody dictates how it is spent. It is a moment when a student is his own person. 1. In secluded nooks of crowded taverns, foosball games are played by enthusiastic fans under the dim light of a tiffany lamp. 2. For some others, beer-drinking is secondary. Bars are sought for their entertainment. 3. After hours, not necessarily after dark, begin soon after university chores — term papers and the like — are put away for the next day's worries, and the next. After Hours 27