Written by Joe Krzyston
In a short-lived burst of back-to-school optimism, a Roanoke College student allowed himself to think, for one fleeting moment, that this might really be his year. The student, a senior, agreed to be interviewed confidentially, out of fear of embarrassment.
“Look,” the student said, “I know it was dumb to think. I know none of the first three years were my years, and I know that means the fourth one isn’t likely to be either, but for a moment, as I walked down the sidewalk by Monterey, I entertained the notion that this year might really be a good one. I…” He looked off distantly before continuing. “I don’t know what I was thinking, but it felt good to believe it for a second, you know?”
What shook the sweet, simple young lad from his naïve daydream?
“Well, in my first couple minutes back on campus I broke a strap on my backpack, spilled coffee on myself, and made really awkward eye contact with a beautiful girl in the library, and I think we both felt weird about it. So the bubble actually burst quite quickly.”
Despite the return of reality, the student is in reasonably high spirits.
“Yeah, it’s actually sort of nice to just accept the way things are, you know? I’m let down every year, but this time it happened really quickly, and that’s good in a way. Better to rip the band-aid off right away, right?” The student gazed optimistically toward the horizon, making one more adorably optimistic remark. “It’s not like things can get a whole lot worse, right?”
