The Wedge Lives
At my very first institute of higher learning, there was a lounge between my dorm and the cafeteria. It was shaped like a wedge, and given that this was a school of engineers and scientists, we called it The Wedge. In the wedge there were a group of people whom seemed to be there all the time. You would walk by and hear conversations about nethack and foam sword construction. Someone would be making chain mail. You know the sort of people I'm talking about - think Comic Book Guy meets Conan The Barbarian.
There were the wedgerats. Rattus Arcus.
My roommate was a wedgerat. In a strange way, wedgerats were really the soul of WPI's culture. People who were damn smart and didn't care in the least if that made them "different." So, you can imagine my surprise when, while searching for my partner for a project, I went to the math lounge on the fifth floor of Pray-Harrold.
There were a bunch of couches and a couple computers. Three guys where discussing the damage a sword created. Minus ten or minus eight? Eventually they had to go the blackboard to figure it out. I had found Justin by then, but at that moment I was transported back to my freshman year. At that moment I was back in the wedge. I was back at WPI.
I thought of deka, and crappy pizza bought at the end of A term so that the money in your meal plan didn't go to waste. I thought of Calc 4 and differential equations. I thought of the fountain in the middle of campus. I thought of friends, now all lost.
Those days at WPI where better than I gave them credit for at the time. They were probably better than I give them credit for today. Everytime I'm back at that campus I think about what might have been if I had stayed. I think I will always be a WPI engineer - not a MSU Spartan, or a Eastern Eagle. WPI will always be my school, even if I only went there for year. It was the only school I ever went to that fit me, and I will always carry a bit of that culture where ever I go. And if I'm feeling that it's slipping away, you'll find me up on the fifth floor of Pray-Harrold... talking about a foam sword.