When I was little, I had this recurring nightmare. I am walking to school in the morning. It’s eerily quiet. No one drives by. It’s just me and the pavement. I keep walking, and the closer I get to school, the more deserted the space gets. There are fewer and fewer trees and no houses.

I look down, and the road under my feet has just turned to dirt and gravel. Then, ever so slightly, the ground starts to shake, and there is a distant, low rumble.

As the rumble grows fiercer, it turns into a deafening roar. Behind me there are dozens of bulldozers, and they’re following me. I start running, but it’s no use. There’s nothing I can do to get out of their way. Then, from out of nowhere, more bulldozers appear. They surround me far into the distance. Luckily, just as all hope is lost, I wake up in a pool of my own sweat.

Well, friends, sometimes our worst nightmares become reality. As I’m sure some of you have noticed, there’s some construction happening on campus.

Forgive me for being shortsighted, but why is it imperative for all this mayhem to take place at once? Has someone changed the rules? When I was still young enough to have to take math, some instructor far wiser than myself tole me the shortest distance between any two points is a straight line. But I can’t get anywhere on campus by taking the most direct route.

I’ll admit: At times, I’m lazy. Sometimes I don’t have the energy to take Neil Avenue all the way to Ackerman Road just to get to Rt. 315. I mean, I’m sure the finished bridge will look lovely (actually, from the pictures I’ve seen, it’s going to stick out like a sore thumb). God willing, it will even support the weight of my car. At the moment though, I really don’t care.

Also, there are times when I don’t want to have to travel the parking lot in front of Cunz Hall Magellan-style just to get to Larkins and, more importantly, the CABS stop on the other side of it. As if it isn’t bad enough – and I feel it is – I read that in the coming spring, some crack team of landscapers will be doing a complete overhaul of the Oval.

I’m afraid we’ll all be taking the long way to get from the library to High Street. Yes, I weep not only for myself, but also for all the Frisbee throwers. Except for those with super human strength, there will be no playing catch this spring.

I’m sure someday I will come back to this campus awestruck by all the beautiful improvements, but now all I can do is dread the coming spring, when I may have to burn more calories than I’ve ever deemed necessary.

Carrie Curtnersenior in English