There's really no downside to warm weather. My body temperature rises a few degrees to a life-sustainable level, the snow melts, leaving a verdant green in place of mind-numbing white, the girls of Notre Dame and St. Mary's finally take off those damn sweatpants ... the list goes on forever, really.
Yup, no downside, that is until I trudged through the muddy, wet grass leading from the edge of library quad over the "hill" straight to the Jordan Hall of Science. Like many dozens of hyperrushed students bolting to and fro class, who were taught that the shortest distance between two points was a straight line in second grade, I walk directly towards the building when I am looking right at it. This is to be distinguished from the anarchist quad-cutters. So many students do this in various locales around campus (Jordan to Rolf's, aforementioned library quad path next to Galvin, etc.) that the grass gets physically worn down to the dirt, creating a muddy mess for my sweet Reebok kicks. It's almost comical; considering the ungodly amount of concrete poured in nonsensical patterns across the face of Our Lady's lawns, the most logical places to put walkways are not paved. Architects in the past (smarter than those employed by ND) have built buildings with no pre-planned walkways connecting them - then after a year of observing the patterns worn into the grass, they subsequently paved those slowly-trodden pathways which us smarty-pants humans collectively determined to be the most efficient. It seems silly that year after year the same grass paths are worn down to the dirt, while the Building Services and Maintenance, or whatever, still doesn't have a clue. So, please, save my shoes and sanity, Notre Dame, and pave those grass paths into dry concrete.
Steve DeLaurentis
junior
off-campus
Feb. 10
