The Unappreciative Crowds

I have a feeling my blog is going to turn into commentary on social issues or just things that bug me. here is my second lame attempt at writing something decent to put up.
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At Rice we have a tradition involving a large marble archway that leads from the entrance to campus into the academic quad. This archway is called the Sallyport. During orientation week, all the new students attend matriculation and then process through the Sallyport, symbolic of entering Rice. And like all good universities, we have a tradition that no student is supposed to walk out of the Sallyport until graduation, when all the graduates process out. The accompanying myth that if you walk out of it before graduation, you won’t graduate.

Some people concoct their own rules to “undo” the instances when they slipped and walked out. One of my roommates walked back in once for every time she walked out. Another friend of mine had to process out prematurely with the graduates her junior year in the role of student body president; she concluded that when she had to process back in the Sallyport at the following year’s matriculation (also in the role of student body president) it un-did the previous walking out.

Some people ignore the Sallyport completely. A guy I knew freshman year walked out of the Sallyport every day because it was the most direct route from his last class back to his dorm. Some people are Sallyport fanatics, refusing to walk anywhere near the Sallyport. I always was part of the school of thought that once we had processed in, we could walk in freely; we just had to avoid exiting the quad through the Sallyport.

Of course, we all know plenty of people who walked out prematurely and still earned their diplomas in four years. But the commonly held notion is that if you don’t walk out of the Sallyport before you graduate, it makes it really special to walk out when you do graduate. I can truthfully admit that the most exciting part of my own graduation ceremony was walking out of the Sallyport. (Then again, after sitting outside in sultry Houston heat for 3 hours listening to over 700 names being called, almost anything would probably seem really exciting.)

Now I have graduated, but I return to campus daily for my summer job. I walk out of the Sallyport almost every day because it is the quickest way from my office to my car. Each time I walk out I feel it is a very symbolic and serious moment. And yet, no one around me ever seems to notice that I am walking out of the Sallyport. They don’t seem appreciate the importance of that act. Do they realize that I survived four years, Differential Equations, a weird-o roommate, lines at the Registrar’s office that rival USSR bread lines in length, several crazy professors (anyone remember the Arabic retreat?), 7 semesters of CK’s less than gourmet cooking, and a crazy Moroccan family to earn my little stroll through the Sallyport?

It’s a sad day when the people standing around don’t even take a minute to cheer for you on your daily walk out of the Sallyport. Even the crowd of little kids on campus for summer camp doesn't give me a round of applause or a line of high fives when they see me walk out. I guess our society is more self-absorbed than I realized.

Life is rough as an unappreciated Rice grad.