Gus Says: Enjoy It While You Can

I think I’ve figured out, 22 years after the fact, what makes college life so cool and so non-replicable. It’s constantly stopping and starting anew. A reset button is pushed at least once a year, more if you want to break it down by semester. Life can just stop, take a break, and then resume again.

For instance, I look at a lot of newspapers online and recently add SIU Carbondale’s student newspaper, The Daily Egyptian, to my daily reading list. Trouble is, I ran out of semester and now I get this message form Gus Bode on the DE site:

Congratulations to those Graduating!
Our next regular issue will be Tuesday, June 14, 2005

Until then, I'll keep on eye on current world events and you can see what I've found here."

Search world for a job with our new career center. Post your resume online. Send your resume to recruiters worldwide!

You can find a place to live in Carbondale by browsing the DawgHouse.

And if you are new in town and need a new friend, check out DawgDates.

Isn’t that great? There’s no news they need to cover. They’re off for a month. See ya!

And that’s what I miss, the short-term commitments. No matter how bad a semester was, it was over in a few months. No matter how much a summer job sucked, it was over in a few weeks. Didn’t like where you were living a particular school year? No problem, the year would end and you would find a new and, hopefully, better place next year. You didn’t own much so moving was a breeze as long as you had access to the trunk of someone’s car.

On top of all that, you get regular, long breaks to regenerate and refocus. Can you imagine having a job, post-graduation, where you get a week in the Spring, a week in the Fall, four weeks at Christmas and the entire Summer off? OK, maybe you would have to work at Wal-Mart for about 10 weeks in the summer (but who cares it's over in 10 weeks!).

Jeez, if only all of life were like that.