Villanova University - Belle Air Yearbook (Villanova, PA)

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THE CINDERBLOCK BAG OF POTPOURRI (the dormitory room) The 10' x 10' habitat of the student often reflects the interests, moods, and general ethos of this purportedly academic creature. ART FORMS: ranging from Playboy foldouts, self-expressive collages, Keane-eyed portraits, half-understood abstract prints, the spectrum of psychedelic posters, to the perennial subconscious identification media of oversized Paul Newmans, Sophia Lorens and Marlon Brandos. MUSIC FORMS: including portable stereos, a healthy pile of albums, transistor radios (clock-radios for the affluent), guitars (Martin, Gibson and Goya denote proficiency), and a fragmented song half sung, half hummed (when your roommate isn’t around). REALITY FORMS: text-books, note-books, blue-books, black-books, lab- books, check-books, class-lists, cut”-lists and a mirror. SELF-IMAGE FORMS: three-piece suits, sweat-suits, dark socks, white socks, wing-tips, loafers, labels (c.g. Botany, Brooks Brothers, London Fog and . . . Cy Harold’s?), V-neck sweaters, athletic equipment (c.g. weights, practice shirts, perhaps a football marked intramural dept.!), Ultra-Britc, Score, British Sterling and of course Right Guard. 21

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 Knoiv thyself” said the old philosopher. 'Improve thyself” saith the new. College upon high school upon grade school . . . the diplomas now lie in a nostalgic heap. Improvement of oneself seems to have evolved neatly, in accordance with the size and date of your diplomas. Whether it was athletic prowess, intellectual efficiency, respons- ibility or the simplicity of general conduct, you are now evidence of the effort of vast self-improvement. You have been a student for approximately sixteen years, reading and writing and thinking, emerging victorious from countless examinations. The words of the new philosophy ring a perpetually applicable truth. The words of the old philosophy, however, arc often comfortably avoided. When the questions of self-assess- ment, true identity, and reason for existence do manage to command your attention, if even for a few escaping minutes, the face reflected in the mirror is suddenly serious, as sign becomes symbol. Introspection, education, experience and the sub- stance and spirit of freedom is the vehicle of improve- ment and knowledge . . . chauffeurs arc a luxury. 22