Oberlin Blogs

My Mental Image of Oberlin

August 4, 2020

Tim Martin ’22

The snow covers the grass in Tappan Square. It covers it perfectly even when there are shoeprints in the snow. I know that there is hot chocolate in Wilder and plan on going there before fourth meal but will end up forgetting. I just left Stevie, I went to the grain bar with my partner and we ate in one of the back rooms that you have to open a door to access. Now we are walking down the street as if we are going to King, but we will cut through the path by Peters to go to Mudd instead. It is cold outside. Cold enough to make my nose turn red, but a scarf covers my face on this night and I am happy. I am now walking past Peters. I always thought Peters looked like it was a building straight out of Harry Potter. It’s a good night. 

I make it to Mudd. My friend Jason is sitting at one of the Mac desktops in the front, I go over and dap him up and he says, “What’s good, Tim!” Seeing Jason is always nice, he has great energy. I see the twins across the library and they raise one finger in the air and raise their heads to say hello. Me and my partner, Deena, shuffle to the back of the library. There is a study room available which makes both of us happy. We sit down and pull out our laptops, but it takes us a half-hour to start doing any work because we keep talking to each other. Chicken tenders night starts in an hour but we haven’t gotten any work done so we put our heads down and grind. After an hour and forty-five minutes, we pack our stuff up and walk to Wilder. I start playing music out of my speaker even though it takes one minute to walk from Mudd to Wilder. Deena and I walk through the back doors into Wilder and make a right to go over to fourth meal. We see Allan who is the greeter and DJ of fourth meal. Allan is very grandfather-like and can put a smile on anyone’s face. Deena and I get our chicken tenders (she gets vegan chicken nuggets) and walk to one of the back booths. She pulls out her laptop to do work while I focus on the chicken tenders. 

Once we finish eating we walk out of the back way of Wilder. The snow that falls from the sky looks like crystals in the light. The crunch from the snow underneath our feet is a welcomed noise. I have my speaker on, breaking the silence of the night with my favorite R&B song of the month. Deena and I are walking back to South where we both live. It’s another night in Oberlin. A night as perfect as fresh snowfall with a trail of shoeprints.

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