bird's eye view

By prevailing over all obstacles and
distractions, one may unfailingly arrive at his chosen goal or destination.
Christopher
Columbus


Going to library is always an adventure. There are four traditional
reasons a library visit is initiated. Here is a list of the top four reasons
that I have compiled.

4.            Meet up with friends.

3.            Use of the readily available
internet.

2.            Traditionally useful resources such
as books, references etc

1.            A quiet place to study

“Finals” is a season in its own right. Shorter than most
others, this time of year is sensed weeks in advance before it unleashes its
unforgiving grip. This is an entertaining period at the least. Finals ALWAYS
bring a swarm of innumerable amounts of students from all over campus that have
never been seen before. Let alone didn’t know they still attended school.

Some, like me, visit the library year round while others don’t.
The library crowd can be classified as one of two groups.

1.      Drivers.

The grades for these aspiring pupils have their grades by
the virtual balls, for the most part. They may need to increase a grade slightly
to get SELF APPROVAL but they are at the top percentile pool. They know what
they want to achieve and where they would like to see themselves in the future.
The valiant rules of tomorrow in other words.

2.      Passengers.

The procrastinators are rulers of this group. They are the
students who are not doing as hot as the drivers but could be working to become
a driver. Grades are pretty critical at this point and determine whether or not
they make that C or D or even fail.

For a large portion, 86% of the time I consider myself a
driver but then there is that 14% (organic chemistry) that pulls me to backseat
passenger’s status. But enough of the tangent ---

Once the sun goes down, the library is INVADED by
passengers. QUICK QUESTION. Have you ever seen a large flock of bird congregating
around the mall towards Christmas times in the evening? YES? Well, you understand
what I’m referring to then. It’s like a large flock of birds. I just don’t
understand. Mind you, not all are passengers; some are drivers that didn’t have
time to beat the evening rush.  It’s
quite a sight if you are sitting in on a transitional period.

Mourning doves are commonly seen at this time. They all have
about the same build and shape. Everyone looks at the dove and would like to
have some part of that life but there is no uniqueness in their existence.

You’d be lucky to see 3 Black-chinned hummingbirds in a 2
hour period. It just seems like they are running out of time for something. They’re
so hasty and in such a hurry; you wonder what they’ve almost missed.

Golden-fronted Woodpeckers typical bring a ruckus when they
enter. I don’t know if they are trying to command attention to let the others
know they have entered or what. I know when they come in I always look up and
have to gather my focus back.

The Blue Jay and American Robin are rare in the evenings but
when they come in you know who they are. These are the people that the
Woodpeckers ask to meet in the evening to “HELP” them study. Hopefully the guidance
from the Jay’s and Robin’s will help them get their act together.

Northern Cardinals are rarely seen in the open. No one likes
to ask them anything because they make everyone else feel stupid or intimidated.
Just an observation but they typically lack common sense. This is why they
over-compensate in the area of knowledge. Too bad they don’t know how to tone
it down or they’d be the perfect professors.

Northern Mockingbirds are the ones that attempt to study
with the Blue Jays, Robins, and Cardinals but can’t hang so they cheat during
the finals. How they get better grades than everyone else troubles some but
they are good at their craft.

The worst of worse are the Red-Herrings. They come in and
make so much noise and distract everyone from doing anything. They have the
most power over everyone’s studying. It’s beyond annoying. When they come in I
know soon all attention will be on them. Nothing can be accomplished then.