The State of Things to Come

‘How’s it feel?’ my friend and fellow classmate David asked me this Friday morning. It didn’t dawn on me until then that he’s also soon to be my fellow graduate. While putting in four years here gives me no right to wax poetic, you can expect some thrown in as I look to the future. Welcome to what’s been, and the state of things to come.

Moving in freshman year seems all too foreign. The beads of sweat rolled down as you, your parents & your future friends lugged Tupperware containers full of clothes, non-halogen lamps and the parts for your Walmart futon up one too many steps, one too many elevator rides. Looking back, it’s as if you watched someone else do it. Or maybe that was when you helped your friend’s sister move in.

Where’s Martin M201? Or it is Martin E201. Screw it. Didn’t you & your friends relish picking out the little freshman during your sophomore year? Just by the way they carried all their books to class, or hung out in blatantly dorm-hall cliques. By junior year, you only cared about two things with freshman: the hot, incoming coeds, and the fact they had to eat in the dining halls. My how the times have changed - instead of trekking across campus to Schilletter, Harcombe is the place to be. Many wish you wouldn’t get charged ten bucks for a Snickers at the Corner Stop, such is the life under the Aramark monopoly.

Speaking of absolute power, the US Government has accomplished a lot recently: fighting & supporting corporate corruption, increasing the national debt, sending our troops into harm’s way for questionable reasons and more — what’s our Student Government done? Not much. It’s fairly difficult to name more than a handful of things they’ve accomplished, aside from puffing resumes & acting all too important. Yes, we are all aware that you control the money for our groups. Yes, we are also aware that a guy wearing a bucket, a trashcan and pipes for arms garnered 720 votes in the last election. Just wait ‘till next year.

In this writer’s opinion, Clemson football fans won’t be saying that this fall. However, the saying is, and will be, a staple down in Columbia. Even with the departure of Charlie ‘Love him, Hate him’ Whitehurst & 1st Round pick Tye Hill, the Tigers have a host of players sticking around & will be much improved.

Gaines Adams and Anthony Waters will do just that, upping their status amongst NFL scouts by intimidating opposing offenses. On offense, Will Proctor, though having little game experience, is plenty ready to provide a different look in the Tiger backfield, throwing to Aaron ‘Gumby’ Kelly, Rendrick ‘Dear God, He’s Huge’ Taylor & All-ACC Chansi Stuckey. In the chance he is a step down, the entire offensive line returns for this season & provides the holes for one of the best stable of running backs in the nation with James Davis and Reggie Merriweather.

Don’t worry about 2007 either, as the success will spill-over. A member of this past year’s solid recruiting class, All-American C.J. Spiller will provide yet another stellar running back. Look for him to receive handoffs in the near future from QB Willy Korn, arguably the nation’s best quarterback this year. Look for Orange & White at the ACC Championship in Jacksonville.

Travel, not on a Spring Break trip to Mexico, but rather, spend a few months overseas & you will benefit greatly. Learn not to stick-out like a typical American tourist, hone your language skills, deal with the challenge of being thrown to the wolves in a foreign land and experience culture shock on leaving the States, and then again, when you come back. It’s your decision on which foods, cultures and people shock you more. Your travels are what you make of them.

While you’re at Clemson, make something. Make a habit out of taking a spur of the moment road trip with your friends, the cash in your wallets & a camera. Make your three, free hours next semester into a course that isn’t a guaranteed A - take Electrical Engineering, Piano or something that’s always piqued your interest. Make what you will of the Grade Point Average – it’s the accepted standard for pigeonholing a person by a number.

It’s fairly obvious to any observer that, outside the confines of Perimeter road, nothing interests Clemson students. War. Gay marriage. AIDS. The weather is just too nice. We need our afternoons spent lakeside, our Pizza Night at Backstreet’s and the rest of our ‘I won’t remember this in one year’ events. Who has time for anything other than apathy? Just those damn hippies ranting about the environment & ultra-conservative whacko’s giving away assault weapons.

Next time a storm rolls through on a day you have nothing to do, think. Be it from a professor, a flyer, or the Colbert Report, something is bound to catch your attention. For once, let it stick with you. It may not be something as ‘important’ as world peace, but a good cause is worth your time all the same. It’s contrary to popular belief, yet a clichéd statement: you can make a difference.

So that’s four years of thought & experience compounded into stream of consciousness essay. If there is only one thing you abide by in your time at Clemson, or wherever you’ll head off to after crossing the Littlejohn stage, it should be this - do your thing.