There are a few ways to ensure you’ll be remembered at your university even years after you’ve graduated. You can donate a wad of cash to the university and have some building named after you, forever to be remembered by the shortened student-used version of your name (sorry, Mr. DeBart). You can die and have your loved ones donate a bunch of money with similar results. Or, you can send your offspring to the same university and rest assured that they’ll bring you up every time someone asks them how they arrived to be a student at ND. Then there’s the fast-track method: do something wild, get dismissed from the university, and have your story passed down as faithful members of the student body immortalize you in dorm lore.
But, alas, there’s another path to perpetual remembrance.
I have profound respect for the people who scrawl their thoughts onto a library desk. Now, I’m not celebrating vandalism per se, but there’s something to be said for those who dedicate their precious hours of procrastination to carving something memorable (some more than others) into a desk to be used for decades to come.
In fact, as I found on an impromptu ill-devised tour (there are a LOT of desks in library), doodles remain dating back to the early 90’s. And these random doodles say a lot about the ethos of our school. Of course there are the tributes to the Hesburgh Challenge, the meaningful initials inside a heart, the “come at me finals!” laments, the tortured-soul song lyrics, and the countless obscenities. I couldn’t examine all of them, but I can say that the “study carrels,” as they’re endearingly called, at Club Hes are golden material for the remembrance of things past.
“Squirrels at ND are more aggressive than guys.”
“Will there ever be a boy born who can swim faster than a shark?”
“In want there’s no salvation. – Virgil”
“What a long strange trip it’s been!”
“All my pieces set me free…human devices set me free…reclamation.”
“A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to be worth the effort. – Herm Albright”
“Rage, rage, rage, against the dying of the light.”
“ND Confession #894: I only come to the library to study because of the good-looking girls that you find here during finals week.”
“Once again I claim the throne for me and my queen. – 2/6/03”
“The real problem is not why some pious humble, believing people suffer, but why some do not. – C.S. Lewis”
“I didn’t choose the thug life, the thug life chose me. – Tupac”
“Mind is Buddha.”
And what I’ll leave you with:
“Don’t trust every quote you read in the library.” – Abe Lincoln