Back to campus

After getting up at what feels like a God-awful hour of the morning, you stumble into your car. It’s only 7 am, but five hours of sleep doesn’t feel like enough. The drive back to Stonewall is much more subdued than the drive to Philly was. Everybody’s tired, and half of you take naps while the other half of you scroll on your phone or watch the road, depending on who’s driving. Breakfast is gas station food, ultra-processed, salts and fats, no doubt Daphne would give you a whooping if she saw the lot of you.

The rest of the trip back isn’t terribly eventful. The scenery quickly turns into a blur of greens, semi-rural signs of civilization receding into that blend of highway Americana. About two hours in, you’ve taken enough catnaps that you’re ready to face the day. You pull out one of the Writing Seminar books that you’ve been assigned, one that you were naively hoping you’d have finished by yesterday night, and start reading.

“Nerd,” Javier snorts.

You take great offense at that, until you look over and see the essay that he’s typing out on his phone, a copy of Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit open on his lap. The two of you chuckle and turn back to your work. Just like that, the rest of the trip flies by, and before you know it, you’re back on campus. It’s time for lunch. What are your plans?