University of Missouri - Savitar Yearbook (Columbia, MO)

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Tim Mueller

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he S I TOR gazes through the Window into the night, and the lights of the city dimly stare back. The visitofs eyes roam the fain t, stirIess streets. This is it: Columbia, Missouri. College Town. The Big Time. At last. Like hundreds of others, the Visitor had traveled to Columbia for something called freshman orien tation, a two-da y summer Whirlwind of welcome lectures, long lines, placement exams, campus tours, class registra tion and the Missouri Fight Song. But now the music has faded, the crowds dispersed. And tucked in to the top floor of a dormitory, the Visitor sits in darkness, next to the window. A11 is quiet save the breathing of a stranger Who sleeps in a bed nearby. The Visitor again looks into the faceless city and wonders about the snug sunIit days of high school and about classmates suddenly missed, wonders about the years of college that lie ahead, and wonders some more . . . For most students, college is a transition between social roles: from adolescence to adulthood, from dependence to wage earner, from the responsibilities of a son or daughter to those of a spouse or parent. Students teeter between a past they cannot reclaim and a future they cannot envision. Uncertainty shrouds the present. But college is only an inter- mediary, a springboard from which professional and personal goals can be reached. Career aspi- rations, marketable majors, grad- uate school plans, summer jobs, ttmaking something of yourselfw - these are the concerns which preoccupy students and compel them to look ahead. Students live in the future tense. In this environment, college is a mixture of excitement and anxiety, dreams and doubts. College exposes prejudices, chal- lenges assumptions, inspires ideas. On the often sinuous, ice-paved roads of experience, college is a pause for critical inquiry. Students must not only define their material goals but also establish their values and responsibilities. One 19th century scholar said of a college education: Everything sheds light upon everything else? The light at the University of Missouri is truly diffuse, a light which reveals dappled personal and profession- al paths available to students. But to choose the right path - ah, that is the fun of college. And the fear. Amid these paths, stu- dents see a montage of images clashing in color and content, images which give the University its unique identity: Lowry Mall awash with stu- dents rushing to classes and Peace Park settled by pic- nikers resting beneath trees. :9 T

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Thick, padded athletes hurtling across sun-splashed football fields and supple, pir- ouetting dancers suspended above spot-lit stages. Pressed together revelers tipping beer mugs in smoke-filled, music-mad barrooms and backpack- burdened bodies shuffling towards a lonely light at an all-night cafe. Roly-poly busi- nessmen robed in suits of alumni black and gold and wide-eyed visiting students cased in bright high school letter jackets. The trumpets of Marching Mizzou heralding the arrival of another homecoming and the tolls of the Memorial Union sounding the passage of another hour, another day, another year. College is characterized not by brilliant flashes of self- revelation but by quiet moments of self-discovery - moments illuminated through the prism of books, teachers, activities, room- mates, friends. Learning about the world and about onehs self is a long and difficult process that college can both accelerate and ease. Adjusting to a new environ- ment, compromising in group situations and disciplining one- self to meet deadlines are skills developed in college that endure long after the last exam has been taken. But once that exam has been completed, one under- stands that the person who entered the University is not the person who is leaving it - and realizes that the University existed long before he arrived and will exist long after he has left. And so the visitor knew it was time to push on. No more class lectures, interminable lines, pop quizzes, Heidelberg happy hours, pre- registration problems 01' Missouri Fight Songs. It seemed the days had been long but the years short, that much had been completed but so much more needed to be accomplished. New challenges now lay ahead. It was time to vacate -- and make way for a new wave of occupants. As dusk settled on Columbia, the Visitor piled into a car filled with memorabilia and memories, drove through the now familiar streets, reached the highway, gave one last look and was gone. D By Jim Hirsch