A column? That’s what I was told, that I would eventually write one this semester as a member of the university’s newspaper.
When I took this job during the summer, I was excited at first to put my thoughts and ideas down into print. It would allow me an opportunity to voice an opinion and it provided me a platform on which to shout it at the top of my lungs! Here I am shouting!
Does that garner your attention? OK, great.
Yet, now that we are here at a point past our midterms, I am not sure if I am in the state of mind to write such a piece.
As we are flooded with tests, quizzes, endless hours of studying and theater rehearsals, etc., along with a full-time class schedule, how can one write an invigorating piece that would cause an uproar and start a protest around the Bronc Trail? What could I possibly protest about?
Maybe, we could protest the way that we walk alongside a green, mesh-netting covered fence, hiding the construction workers and vehicles, the mounds of dirt and concrete and the growing stench of manure that has filled the air on the Edinburg campus.
Some students say it’s the sewer lines that are being serviced.
While most folks are getting used to doing away with their face masks, this stank smell has many students wearing them again.
Either way, it’s surely not how one would imagine their final two semesters before graduation. It seems the obstacles that life has presented before us are meant to detour and distract us from our destination.
Outside of campus, one must first get through traffic zones that are at constant standstills, which stem from the never-ending highway construction on the expressway at the Interstate-2 and I-69 interchange that began in 2020, while the world was dealing with a pandemic.
Not to mention the parking issues the university is dealing with due to the road construction near campus. Shall we protest that?
I took photos of the overflowing parking lots for a story we did back in September. I even climbed on top of the University Recreation Center tower roof to capture those photos, where I was able to see the line of vehicles stretching all the way to University Drive.
That traffic has not diminished much since then. Even this morning, it took an extra 10 minutes on Sugar Road alone in order to enter parking Lot E-9. Then, I made the walk across parking lots and streets just to get onto campus.
Finally, stepping onto the Bronc Trail, I inhaled that wholesome grossness.
I forgot about the putrid scent again, a reminder of why I am getting this education: to rid myself of the cycle that is stricken onto folks down here in the Rio Grande Valley, to live among the shit and keep on truckin’.
I guess this is what it’s like to be so close to capturing one’s own destiny. Things get rough and we must shovel on through the leaves.
