Spring break
Spring break is here, and it is very, very quiet. I’d be willing to bet that at least 90% of our students are gone this week - many of them to warm destinations for a beach week, some of them to their parents’ house or to go to a friend’s place. I kept looking out my window this morning to see if I saw any students - and I did not see one until 10:22. It was a young man in shorts and a hoodie who was going out for a run.
Most of the activity on the Quad today is limited to Facilities, who are laying down what looks like fresh dirt and grass seed. This is part of the yearly ritual of prepping the Quad for Commencement. I am not sure how our Facilities folks get the Quad grass to be as thick and lush as a carpet, but they do a fabulous job. One of my favorite things to do Commencment weekend is to walk barefoot on the grass. It feels heavenly.
For the years that I was at Wake Forest, the Quad was chained off to keep the grass pretty. Many of you remember Dr. Smiley, who would scold you if you walked on the grass. “The grass cries!” he’d say - or so I am told by one of my college friends who was trying to sneak thru.
The chains came down a few years ago and students walk all over the grass, play Ultimate Frisbee, catch some sun, read a book. I like it much better this way, truthfully. But old habits die hard and I mostly walk on the sidewalks. Except during graduation when the grass is at its finest.