What I love about college campuses

The Author
It's 5:30 pm and I should be walking across campus to the far away but free parking where I park or I should be driving home. Instead I'm walking up the stairs in the Tivoli student center. I use to spend countless hours in here when I was a student. I would lounge between classes, grab food at the food court, meet with friends, find a spot to nap, and hangout in the area where college clubs leadership was given some office space. Memories of wandering around the hallways laughing & talking with friends, waving at classmates fill my mind (The Auraria campus has three colleges with a total of 30,000 students. Considering those numbers most anyone was always impressed when they saw someone they knew! I could have a class with someone one semester and not seem the for a year or two).

Tonight I will hear a writer/professor from Northwestern read from a recently published book. I sit in the back of the room because I'm late and there isn't much seating. The Tivoli use to be a brewery so I'm sitting on top of some large structure that I assume was used to make beer or some how involved in part of that process. 50 some students & teachers from various programs sit before me and the author is behind a podium. The lighting in this wing we are sitting is similar to mood lighting or something out of a dimmly lit coffee shop. The wall behind the author is mostly glass, a slew of large windows and it faces the west side of down town denver. This time of year when the sky is dark and silhouettes of tall buildings are lit up & traffic streams along the streets below there is a candelescant glow from the background that reminds me of Christmas lights. The scent of fresh coffee brewing from the coffee shop two floors below me fills the air and for a few moments it seems like this moment couldn't get any more perfect. This is what I miss from my college experience.

The Politician
Two days later I'm taking a hour off work because I can & our office encourages us to be a part of activities on campus. There are two old unused churches on campus, one is used as a gallary & the other is used as an event center. I'm in the one used as an event center. The ceiling in here is easily 80 ft above you with mildly impressive stain glass windows along the walls. They are more for light then decoration. The front of the room has a stage where the first non-jewish member of the knesset is speaking. He is part of an ethnic minority called Druze or People of the Monotheism (Google it, plenty of interesting info about them). The speaker is talking about social, ethnic, & political pluralism in Israel & democracy which is full of all sorts of fascinating details as it seems like we don't get much insight from our news here in the states. The presentation ends with a Q & A session where the fun began. I assume most of the people asking questions were palenstinians or supporters of palestine juding by their dress, ethnicity, and position of being critical against Israel. What started off as a discussion ends up turning heated as Israel is accused of this and that. The sad part was they were discussing this with a Israeli Statesman who knew a hell of alot more of what was going on in Israel then the palestinians. He was playing the role of educator and informing most of the Americans what was going on over there and in doing so he laid out a bunch of facts the Palestinians couldn't refute or argue with which was mildly amusing to the audience.

The discussion started out friendly but critical of this action or this move that Israel made and the individuals asking the questions weren't trying to start trouble as much as obtain a scholarly view on why Israel had done what it had done. A few students got up and I think they meant well but took their questions & opinions into more of an attack on the Israeli politician. I remember at one point a Palestinian sitting infront of me stated loudly "I hated Israel". There was a professor of some sort trying to keep order and calm students. After a few more questions the tension disapated from the room and everyone seemed to be calm enough to speak to each other without death threats, screaming, or anger.

Not knowing much about the conflict or the cultures I can't speak to all the issues going on in that room but I remember the experience. The speaker's take on peace on the middle east...how he understands human nature and it isn't for peace rung in my ears as I left the church.

Both events capture bits of what I miss from college. I miss the days knowing my ideas would be challenged or hearing a different perspective on a situation. I miss living outside of a comfortable bubble where people are passionate, not just over starbucks or getting a day off work, or seeing the funny email that is going around the office. I miss hearing people struggle with ideas & beliefs in a genuinely passionate manner. I miss hearing about the details of life that move someone to experience events with passion. I am not saying life after college is dull and boring but there was something about those memories & experiences in college that made me feel alive.