Midnight Breakfast

So, at the end of the semester most colleges in the States have a "Reading Week" where classes have ended but final exams haven't started, so the students can get the chance to review for their exams. Mills is a bit different- we have "Reading Days" instead, and we have two of them, instead of a week.

However, it is during these Reading Days that the one tradition takes place on campus that I actually feel any connection to: Midnight Breakfast. Starting at 10 at night on the second Reading Day (so, a few short hours before the first finals start the next day at 9 a.m.), our cafe on campus is transformed into a gigantic breakfast buffet with eggs, potatoes, waffles, coffee, tea, bacon AND - anyone who is a true Mills student understands that the best part of the breakfast is---- the vegetarian sausage patties. Why are they so delicious? NO ONE KNOWS. But they are what I line up for!

I remember going Freshman year and hanging out with a few people, shifting from foot to foot in line as we waited for the doors to open and for the tons of people who had lined up in front of us to get food. Last night, I was hanging out with friends (all seniors) and we decided to walk down so we'd be at the cafe at about 9:30 - and we were the first ones there. During the first fifteen minutes of waiting, a trickle of students came to the plaza outside the cafe and the line grew longer - and all of the people at the front of the line were seniors. We know how this goes by now. :)

By 10 I couldn't even see the end of the line since it had turned a corner around the side of a  building. We sauntered in to get our food (veggie patties!!) and sat down to enjoy it. Forty-five minutes later as we were heading back to the dorm, they were still letting people in through the door!

It was kind of fun to be a cynical senior last night, to look around at the other people who were dancing and singing along to the music was playing and to think, as my friend Carly put it, "Man, why are they all so happy?" Several people at the table I was sitting at have their theses due on Friday, Carly and I have an Abstract Algebra exam, and in general we feel we are ready to move on from this place --- but then again, I'm sure I will also think as I sit down with my cup of coffee at my desk in a half hour or so to study that it is just incredible that I get to be a student here - to have the sole objective be the expansion of my own knowledge. That's pretty fantastic.

In any case, sentimental or no, I have to go and try to expand my brain a bit around some Sylow P-Subgroups and things, and also try not to forget that my algebra exam is from 2-5 on Friday afternoon (yikes! which is tomorrow!) but that also, from 6-9, I have a film exam. So, I'll trade off between the two as I study. Wish me luck.