Why College Was Awesome

While walking down the street yesterday, I was reminded why college was so epically hilarious.  Two events in particular occurred: first a cyclist zipped by on his bike.  Not unusual in a city like Seattle, however, this guy happened to be chanting (NOT singing) what sounded like an Irish power ballad.  There really isn’t another way for me to describe this, but let it be known that this guy had quite the sonorous timbre to his voice.

This on its own simply made me smile as I walked the rest of the way to the bus stop.  Once I got to the bus stop was when I really remembered the kinds of things I saw in college.

I was using a handy dandy smartphone application to check how long I would have to wait for my bus.  As I was doing so, a guy rolled up in an epic college beater car.  This poor car was in rough shape.  I’m talking more than just a rusty bumper barely holding on (this one had a rusty bumper that was held on by, I kid you not, duct tape). The hood of the car was held down by a fraying bungee cord, one rear window had been replaced with a piece of plastic, and both driver’s side doors were maroon while the rest of the car appeared to have once been a blue or green. 

The driver, a guy maybe 19 or 20 years old, completed the picture.  He wore a backwards trucker’s hat, had hair that is so blond that it might as well have been invisible, and his gangly limbs did not seem to fit comfortably inside the car.  Next to him rode a very exasperated boxer with its head leaning on the dashboard, drool dripping onto the passenger seat.  As I was taking this scene in, the driver suddenly turned to his dog and laid down some mad Dr. Dre lyrics like a straight up G.

He was seriously into it. I’m talking with the hand motions, jumping up and down in his seat, rocking the car, etc. Oh, and did I mention that there did not appear to be a working radio in this lemon car?  Yeah, no sound except for the kid and his enthusiasm.

I quickly looked around to make sure that I wasn’t the only person bearing witness to this Aryan gangster rap.  Another girl also had her eyes on the car and immediately started texting on her phone.  I continued to stare as he finished the chorus and then, just as suddenly as he had begun, turned forward and slowly drove into the intersection as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

After a series texts sent to various friends, I realized that stuff like this used to happen all the time in undergrad.  Now, perhaps this is because my undergrad university is located in a large, urban area.  Maybe if I had gone to school in the middle of nowhere this would not have been a normal occurrence.  However, this is one of the things that reminds me why my undergrad experience was so awesome.  Not frat parties or major events.  I remember how ridiculous things were and how I spent four years living in a microcosm of insanity and came out a better person.  Or maybe just a more sarcastic person.