Missing Staircase

On the morning of my arrival to a new semester at University of South Florida I navigated my way through the masses and arrived timely to my classes only to find that the renovations to the Engineering II Building’s lobby area had been complete. Being my usual spot to study, a space that isn’t as cold or overpopulated as the Marshall Center or the Library, I made my way through the building only to be greeted by bar style stools and an unfinished counter top that extended the length of what came to be called the “fish bowl.”  In terror I came to find rectangular tables in dwindling number than previously occupied by circular tables.  If my memory serves me correctly about six chairs fit comfortably to those round tables. Sure you can fit the same amount of chairs on a rectangular table but it just doesn’t feel right after you’ve had the dreams of King Arthur and his round table. As well as absence of one hundred and twenty dangling flags that as students we had our crack at naming which country it represented and a combination of losing the vending machine and precious microwave created a great void that no amount of new furniture can fill. The renovation wasn’t complete until they had one more piece of memorabilia to repossess, the curved staircase. The staircase had been removed, a staircase that pulled at the strings of our childish nostalgia as the proverbial underwater castle in our fishbowl.  The excuse that it gives us more room is not valid as they have yet to fill the space vacated by the staircase.  Until they manage to fill the empty space, once occupied by an accessible staircase, this portion of the population will continue to criticize some of the executives’ decisions.

Jeff Muñoz