Oh, the Robert E. Kennedy library—the site of any student’s dreams and nightmares. You’re either there to ace a midterm, do that one last minute assignment, or blankly stare at your book and realize that you know nothing…fifteen minutes before a test. Its inner workings and five levels provide a unique ecosystem with a wide array of different beings. Every person takes on a new label once they step through those automatic doors. Here are a few of the people you’ll see:
1. People who clearly have been there all night
You’ll usually find their kind in the 24-hour room either in a fetal position on a chair or doubled over a table with a little puddle of drool by their face. Sometimes you wonder if they’re even breathing under the piles of textbooks by them.
2. Library Employees
They pretty much run the place and are the real troopers in the library animal kingdom. They have to deal with all the ignorant questions that would make you want to hit your head on the table, but instead they persist through it; even at 7:00am! You’ll get some hilarious sass from them and it gets slightly sad when they know what textbook you want to check out. You should most definitely make sure to respect their kind.
3. Caffeine Junkies
These students congregate in the line wrapping around all the way to the stairs that leads to Julian’s (aka the library’s watering hole). You HAVE to realize you have a problem if you can bring yourself to stand in that line, eyes twitching with dark circles under your eyes. If you dare to approach them pre-coffee they will only look back at you with a zombie look on their face, puzzled as to why you’re even trying to talk them before their morning cup. Post-coffee, they shed their trance and show their true form of a regular human being.
4. The Procrastinator
Well at least they made it to the library, which is more than a lot can say. But, once they fell into their seat, the obvious next choice was to pull out the laptop and watch cat videos. These beings are quite nomadic and don’t stay in one area. They’re diverse and you can find them on all levels of the library.
5. Nappers
These are the sloths of the library animal kingdom, usually found on a giant cushion in the quiet study room. They do sometimes venture out of the room, trying to be productive but, instead, revert to their true form with heads back, mouths open and small snores coming from them. The rest of the library kingdom have mixed feelings somewhere between sympathy and annoyance toward these snoring kind.
6. The right before-the-midterm kid
Eyes twiching, small tears filling their eyes, these students are usually are flipping pages too quickly and murdering their study guide with a highlighter. No matter how prepared they are, they’re going to be in full-panic mode. You’d do best to stay away from them or at least use extreme caution and a low, soothing voice when addressing them.
7. Those kids who just need a place to sit between classes
They have an hour between class and decided to stride into the library entrance with a Subway sandwich in their hand. The worst of their kind will go into a quiet area and proceed to eat with loud, audible sounds. None of us are innocent though, and will at one point be taking one of the comfortable chairs to kill some time.
8. A couple crazy people
Lastly, especially towards the end of the week, there’s always that kid who just finished up his work for the weekend and has no problem showing their excitement. This expressive moment stops the entire area around them and calls for the students to look on with envy or pride.
From the outside, you find a stone, concrete fortress that is the true epicenter for all Cal Poly students. If you peak in each window, you’ll find anything but that calm, stable facade. It’s a true network of winding book shelves and staircases holding students following suit to at least one of these categories, if not more. If you’re going there soon, my regards are with you, my friend and encourage you to pull out the binoculars and find these beings in your safari. Not really though, because people would definitely think that you are one of a kind.