Slippery Rock University - Saxigena Yearbook (Slippery Rock, PA)

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But, before we knew it, it was midterms. These loomed over me like a horrendous thunder cloud promising to rain out my future. I survived the storm and worked harder to do better. These were the times I began to wonder about just what it was thot was so enjoyoble about college. The parties that had been going on since I arrived had temporarily ceosed. That didn't matter much since I wasn't much for drinking or smoking and whatever else followed the loss of common sense in the heat of the night. I kept thinking all the while ''If it gets too bad I'm just going to give up and quit. But just what was too bod? I took an interesting paragraph from my journal. It was an averoge day: September 11th and here is what I had written. I want to cry, but I can't. I must not be that down. I feel as though I om beaten, succumbed, defeated. Maybe I have lost my ability to feel and now all I do is run through the motions. I don't think I was alone in feeling this way since there were those times when everyone was at the end of his her ropes. It must stem from the atmosphere. One day I was elated and the next torn apart, and for what? A simple grade at the end of the term? Yes, in part, yet thot for me was not a major daily concern. Living was thot major concern: getting out there ond doing more from day to doy than just going to classes and getting by. If it was the atmosphere that hurts, it is the people in the same atmosphere who can heal the wounds best. People make this college in their helpfulness, openness, empathy, ond friendship. 22

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StKitmuie Bryan sing to ■ing o s le it oy. st. Take the example of the friend I made, Ed. Now Ed is not that special or dynamic, but we both can relate to each other. Ed wasn't much for talking, but he sure loved to walk and listen. Me? I wasn't much for walking, but I do love to talk. Thus in the day-to-day battles here we eventually were tossed together. Actually I just tagged along one time while he took his nightly walk. Since that time, no matter what the trouble is, no matter how blue we've felt at the day's end, we've still managed to find something in that day to chuckle about. This is what I believe moves many of us: those special times with those special people. And perhaps this is one of those things that makes college fun and memorable. But then finals came and I cried. I didn't want to return home in failure. I had worked hard, and it was as if I could not find the power I needed to make it through. I looked to my upper classmen with questioning eyes and received horror stories that hardened my heart. I thought of leaving again, and I really almost did, but that fool before thought he needed to stay and stick it out to the finish or exhaustion whichever came first. Fortunately it was the finish. Thus I hod survived one semester, probably the hardest, certainly the maker of memories. But now I had four weeks to take it easy and enjoy Christmas. This break started off exciting as my family and I got together after a long separation. Then it began to drag as Christmos wos over, and I had little to do. I was fortunate ond went to see my old friends and classmates in Florida. It was exciting to be able to walk into my high school a free man, on odult, and chat casually with teachers and administrators as old friends. Of course there were those that I wrote to and longed to see; in particular my sweetheart, Judy. Yes, I did discover that absence makes the heart grow fonder, but there is nothing like being together again to make that old heart thrive. Somehow all my old friends had a new found respect for me since I was now in college. I took advantage of that and enjoyed myself totally while I wos with them. 23