Page 28 - Contrast1998

Carpe Diem
Jennifer Vick
A solitary leaf breaks loose from the branch
of a tree that holds it secure. Slowly it floats
down from its home cathedraled in the sky
and rests briefly on the side of the hill below
before the wind soon nudges it on its journey
again. The hill is blanketed with the deep
green grass of a dwindling summer, and
cracked sidewalks, littered with the first dy-
ing leaves of fall, meander in three different
directions up and down the steep slope while
meeting conveniently within a white gazebo.
The gazebo is like a quaint jewel gracing the
regal hillside where it is anchored as solidly
as the tall brick classroom beside it, enduring
the incessant ebb and flow of generations of
students.
Strangely enough, the little structure rarely
captures the interest of the students that wan-
der through it to class, forever hurried and
forever tired. Instead, it is often seized in the
late night hours when the dorm windows
glow and belch music and the town below
sparkles with an electric brilliance. Regularly
subject to disruptions in the still night, the
gazebo's insides shake and quiver under the
weight of inebriated souls that fill their lungs
and the cold night air with the taunting songs
of Greek sisterhood and brotherhood.
Otherwise, students briefly regard the little
Carpe Diem.structure as they fall into the semester's rou-
tine that inevitably becomes mundane. They
take the same sidewalk to class and to dinner.
They sit under the same tree when the weather
turns warm in spring, or choose to sprawl la-
zily on the grass in the plaza outside the li-
brary to witness the sudden reawakening of
the campus. The gazebo feeds the hungry
camera of a proud parent and is an ornament
to the student's eye.
From my dorm window my gaze is often
drawn to it, and when I lift the shade in the
mornings it greets me bathed in morning light.
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One afternoon, I was routinely observing the
fair spectacle while readying myself for work
and realized I had never really taken the time
to pause within it and look around to see how
the diminutively independent Structure views
the campus. The chapel was striking four and
I hurriedly took a detour from my usual path
to the building on campus where I worked,
and followed the sidewalk that led from the
dorm to the gazebo with a dried leaf as a com-
panion that hopped and skipped with the
breeze. A cold rain began to fall but when I
reached the circular shelter, the sturdy roof of
smooth white wood and gray slate kept me
dry. I stood directly in the middle of the little
house, where below my feet there were en-
graved in the concrete the words--Carpe
Diem.
I stood directly in the
middle of the little house,
where below my feet
there were engraved in
the concrete the words--
Turning around and around, I viewed the
campus from all directions, first looking be-
low me, to the bottom of the hill. Cars lined
the highway leading the work world home to
dinner and the town lights began to illumi-
nate the paling blue sky. I looked at the dorms
and their slew of windows, some were open
and shaded by curtains, others empty and
closed, and one or two brandished a frater-
nity banner from the sill. Professors slowly
left the classroom building a few yards away