Published 2010-10-26T16:57:00Z”/>
Alexander Seymour
Many students choose to abstain from making the trip to class on Fridays.
The reasons for this are numerous, such as hangovers, overdrinking on Thirsty Thursdays, benders, lack of sleep, hangovers, laziness, Power Hour, hangovers – I could go on.
Some people see this truancy as a problem – but not me. I realized a couple years ago that I was missing the most pleasant day of the week to actually attend Chico State, thanks to a general lack of student attendance.
I came to this revelation quite by accident one Friday morning. Much like the living dead, I dragged my body to campus, so affected by the previous night’s activities that I actually thought it was a Thursday.
The first thing I noticed was that the panhandlers and protestors were sitting this one out, allowing me to go about my business without having to deal with serious issues or to address my miserly ways.
But I soon noticed something else – instead of having my throbbing head greeted by a raucous crowd rushing to class, campus was clear and serene. The classroom was much the same, sparsely populated with room to spread out. I was surprised to actually see the teacher and my fellow students on the other side of the classroom.
I’ve noticed that, combined with a little TGIF attitude, this freedom of movement and visual space has influenced the way people conduct themselves during Friday classes. People are more jaunty and friendly, and the spatial freedom is translated into a freedom of thought.
Class discussions regularly wander off into frontier territory, where a little humor and a laid-back attitude infiltrate the lectures of even the stuffiest professors. Granted, this can lead to weird topics for classroom conversation when normally structured or authoritarian professors let their guards down and try to tell stories, but this can be funny and even help students get involved.
The absence of the typical crowds did wonders for my head, but it had another, more magical effect – it allowed the healing touch of nature to reassert its hold on Chico State. The campus is actually quite beautiful when one takes time to sit down in the grass and just let the senses take it all in.
Instead of lying in bed shivering off a headache, I was being reminded of the natural wellspring our college is surrounded by. Birds and other small creatures crept out of the wooded areas, presumably to scavenge bits of refuse overlooked by the campus sustainable movement.
Without the threat of being trampled or accosted by students, birds become the new big kids on campus. Senior Zach Peper noticed this one day on his way to class.
“I was walking to class with a coffee in my hand,” Peper said. “As I took a sip, I looked up, but didn’t expect to see a big hawk sitting in a tree, eating a pigeon. I was so impressed with this astounding display of raw nature, I ended up late for class.”
Fortunately, on these laid-back days, lateness can often be overlooked.
Fridays at Chico State are like Animal Planet – you get nature’s beauty as well as its uncut ferocity.
Friday can become a day of clear thinking and reflection that people miss out on during the rest of the week when they’re trying to catch up on schoolwork or unwind.
Ironically, the mental and natural harmony on campus can only be maintained if students continue to skip Friday classes. I humbly ask you readers to keep skipping – those of us who show up have a good thing going over here.
Alexander Seymour can be reached at [email protected]
