Spring fever has arrived

Allison Pritchard

Only a few weeks remain in the school year. Giant projects, mile-long papers and killer exams loom in the minds of college students. We count down the days till summer, just wishing all the crap we have to do beforehand would just magically disappear. No one wants to actually sit down and do anything productive. The sun is so relieving to wayward Ohioans that we wear shorts once it hits 60 degrees. We don’t do work. We go outside. We party. We try to take these last few weeks for what we can.

Spring fever has hit Kent State! You know what that means. No one can concentrate on getting all the junk done they need to do before time is out. You’ll find students skipping class to play sand volleyball by Rosie’s. In fact, the whole lawn in that area is covered with an eclectic array of co-eds, reading those textbooks they put off all semester, or trying to get a non-fake-and-bake tan. Students are assembled in little clusters in the field. It seems like about every fifth or sixth person who walks by is carrying a smoothie.

When you walk across campus, it seems like everyone you ever met your whole time at Kent State suddenly is outside and walking around. All the girls wear flip-flops or cute little painful summer shoes that I swear I’d kill myself if I had to wear. Guys play basketball or throw a ball around, just close enough to you as you walk by that you’re afraid you’ll get hit.

During the spring, we all learn to rationalize that third trip to Chipotle so far this week or that fourth night of drinking. Instead of spending another hour on that final research paper, we play another hour or two of Xbox. We think we are invincible.

If you hit up Wal-mart or maybe Target, people are out buying stuff they don’t really need. Straw purses, new sandals, and bathing suits that show more skin than a newborn are thrown across the checkout scanner. It seems like everyone’s experiencing a manic shopping frenzy.

At night, if you take a walk around campus, you’ll see various young lovers cuddled up in several spots around campus. Any bench, grassy area or outside feature, like the brain monument, is a hot spot for those little kissers. It sort of makes me wish I was one of those sappy kids out there.

The drunk kids are out too. Tanorexic freshmen with skirts that would even be too short for a 1st grader walk down Main Street to the frats. Heaven forbid they get there too late and all the beauteous Nattie Light is gone. The bars are crowded with thirsty co-eds who want to whisk away their end-of-the-year sorrows with booze, and then maybe order some Hungry Howie’s later on.

Now, college isn’t all fun and games. So, of course, you gotta prioritize and figure out a schedule to finish up all your last minute work. But I say, as long as you get your stuff done, have some fun. It’s not often that you can enjoy the hot, horny, homeworkless last days of school.

Allison Pritchard is a junior electronic media production major and a humor columnist for the Daily Kent Stater. Contact her at [email protected].