I’d been away four weeks but felt like I’d never left

Certain things in life don’t change.  The smell of day-old pizza and laundry detergent that lingers in the hallways of the dormitories.  The five foot high snow banks that line the sidewalks and roadsides in January.  The way the wind rubs your smile raw as you walk.  The taste of Slices, the infamous Hamilton pizza institution.  I was thinking all of these things as I walked around campus this afternoon.  I’d been away for four weeks but felt like I’d never left. The routine of the day and its routine surprises still the same.  I instantly assumed all the ‘Colgate’ habits and customs I had come to know over the years.  10:00 a.m.: it’s time to check my e-mail again and grab a cup of coffee from the O’Connor Campus Center before my Art History class.