Senior Perspective:
It’s true — your college years do fly by, with lightning speed that makes the four years spent in high school seem like an eternity.
And it’s true — things feel different when you’re at the top of the pyramid, having seen St. Olaf cycle through what seems like a million-and-a-half different phases and eras.
At my first-year orientation, a speaker said this unforgettable quote:
“The days are short, but the years are long.”
Well, of course, the reason it was so unforgettable was because he got it wrong. He got days and years mixed up. But we all knew what he meant. And that’s what matters, I guess.
Obviously, the long days of my first-year looked a lot different than they do now. I think St. Olaf is a very different place now from when I started. Campus culture has changed a lot. It has been molded and shaped by the restructuring and growth of certain groups on campus, the demolition of beloved spaces on and around campus, the growing population of Northfield, and the student body itself.
Change is inevitable, but there is something strange about looking back on the changes that St. Olaf has endured in the past years and feeling like you’re the only one who remembers this or that. For example, I was on the Music Entertainment Committee my freshman year, before it merged with the Lion’s Pause and became the Concert Board. I was wearing an old shirt that had “MEC” printed on the front, and someone asked me what it meant. In fact, no one in that group, as I was the only senior, knew what it meant. In that moment, I felt like I was holding some sacred knowledge that no one else had, and it made me feel simultaneously emboldened and aged. In other words, a lot of things have been making me feel old lately.
I certainly can’t do justice in fully explaining the shift in campus culture from my freshman year to now — it was just something you had to experience. You had to be there, sorry. But, there’s a certain kind of privilege that comes with being a part of the ‘in’ group — or, just the class of 2025, rather — that remembers Ole Ave pre-New Hall, conversation programs like AmCon, EnCon, and others, when off-campus housing was actually allowed, when Faye Webster performed in the Pause, St. Olaf Flirts — and Hurts — PDA, and Tandem Bagels.
Nevertheless, I am confident in the future of St. Olaf. It’s cool to see St. Olaf grow and become more responsive to student needs. It’s pretty nice to have more options besides Stav for lunch now, and I’m really excited to see projects like the Shop 1500 take off.
I think we are headed in the right direction – minus our over admittance of students – and overall, I think the Hill’s changes are for the better, regardless of how much I grieve the old Cage menu.
– Kate Linggi
Sophomore Perspective:
Having been at St. Olaf for at least a year now, I would like to share various aspects of my experience of life on the hill as an underclassman, using our classic chant, “Um! Yah! Yah!”
U: unbreakable. This is the best word to describe how I feel after I complete my second noon to four shift at the Cage in a week. Four hours may not seem like a lot, but dealing with an after class rush while getting hit with the afternoon slump is not for the weak.
M: mornings. I do have my first 8 a.m. this semester, but honestly, as a morning person I truly enjoy walking out of Ytterboe at 7 a.m., looking across foggy fields, and gazing at the warm glow of the rising sun on the trees of the Quad. It’s an even better morning if Stav is serving pancakes for breakfast.
Y: yap. It’s not unusual to see (or hear) my friend and I having a study/yap session on the Quad after dinner when neither of us feels like doing any work. It’s essential you have someone you can complain about homework with while you complete it (or attempt to).
A: autumn. You have to admit it, the colored leaves and sandstone building combo goes pretty hard. There really isn’t a better time of year to be on campus than when the temperature is cool, the hammocks are up, and the leaves are falling.
H: hey! Sometimes I feel like I am saying “Hey!” and waving to one-fifth of the campus population — this is, perhaps, an exaggeration — As a “Minnesota Nice” born and raised girl, I do appreciate how friendly this campus is, and how many ways we can say “Hey!”, from Friday Flowers to a classic smile and wave when passing through the quad.
Y: Ytterboe. When I was assigned to an infamous “duodectet” last spring, my expectations for on-campus living were low, which was saying a lot considering I lived in Kildahl last year. However, it’s been great so far; I’m rooming with my two best friends and I seriously love having a sink in the room as well as a real closet this year. The downside? The resident squirrel outside our window who believes it’s his duty to wake us up at 6 a.m. on Saturday mornings.
A: adirondack. A classic staple of the Quad and St. Olaf in general. It just wouldn’t be the same without these lovely yellow chairs. And from where else would we be able to watch the squirrels run rampant? Exactly.
H: Hozier. All I have to say for this one is, when I tell someone here that Hozier is one of my favorite artists, their immediate reply isn’t “who is that?”
– Kathryn Looney
