And The Thunder Rolls (By: Kolin Kraning)

3:30 in the morning, not a soul in sight.
Walking around campus, in the still of the night.
Talking with my friend Megan, about practically nothing.
Say “goodnight,” walk back to my dorm, get in bed and go to sleep.

Haha.

(That is my pathetic attempt at rewriting Garth Brooks, so forgive me.)

But that can’t be thunder, it does not rain and storm here often.

No, no thunder at all, I’m in Riverside, so that is probably a train; a train that passes through town at unholy hours of the morning to disturb sleeping college students, causing them to fall asleep in class the next morning. See, professors? It’s not our fault! The trains pass through late at night and wake us poor students up from our peaceful slumber!
…If only it were that easy.

I have been doing some thinking, trying to figure out why exactly it is so hard to find time to sleep while in college. Every night I try to be a good student. I walk to my room, turn off the light, get in bed and then…someone calls, or my computer magically makes its way to my bed and says “check your Facebook!” All of the sudden I find myself online, or leaving my room to hang out with friends into wee hours of the morning (RIGHT WHEN THE TRAINS COME!!)

Now, don’t think for a minute that I don't like hanging out late at night. There is always so much to do. One thing I love about attending a smaller university is that the majority of the students live on campus, and it is very easy to hang out with everyone because we all live so close to eachother. From In-N-Out to Seven Eleven, and CVS to Wal-Mart, the options are never eneding! You can always hang out on campus, but if you don't then there are tons of other things to do in the area!

…Ok maybe there aren't a "A TON" of things to do late at night, but that's the truth in any town other than NYC and Vegas (so I’ve heard). So we can’t be too disappointed! But in all honesty, it is crazy how my friends and I manage to turn something as simple as a trip for fast food into a late-night extravaganza. We run around, make loud noises, act like obnoxious teenagers, and in the end we call it a “great night.”

One of our favorite pastimes in Hall 2B of Smith Hall (the boy’s dorms, where I live) is playing Halo. We have three Xbox 360’s on our hall, combined, and we connect them all via network cables and play “system link” games: 8-16 players (depending on how many systems are linked, four players for every console) in different rooms, against each other. It's intense! We play over and over, for hours on end, and it never gets old! At times I get this feeling that we, as new arrivals on the college scene, are relishing the fact that our parent s can no longer limit our “play time,” but when I look at the upper-classmen I notice that quite a few of them do the same thing.

I am totally and completely in love with this school, the campus and the people have made it such an incredible place to live. I am excited to spend my college career here. I can tell that it is going to be an amazing experience, and I am always excited to go on new adventures and make new memories.


Kolin Kraning

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