The Honors Lounge

By Estefania Zavela

 

“Well, I think those equations are definitely going to show up on the exam.”

“--just what Obama thinks he’s doing with the Affordable Care Act.”

“--are actually a delicacy hearkening back to the World War II era.”

 

This is my third year but I’m ashamed to say I never spent much time in the University Honors (UH) lounge before this quarter. This quarter, driven by the lure of the new Honors laptops and the slow, anguishing death of my own laptop, I spent a lot of my breaks eavesdropping on amazing conversations like the ones sampled above.

 

I’ve always regarded eavesdropping as sort of an art form: it alerts you to concerning truths about your roommates and gives great fodder for blackmail. Usually, though, listening in on other people’s conversation is either boring or just plain demoralizing. This is not the case with the UH lounge. This place provides the most consistently vibrant and well-informed discourse of almost any other place I’ve ever been. Fox News could take a few pointers.

 

Over the course of the quarter, I found the UH Lounge not just a great place for hastily scribbling out some homework, but also a great place to reenergize. Visiting the lounge is like taking a brief opportunity to remember: This is why I go to college.

 

It seems like everyone in Honors passes by the lounge at some point or another. It’s a great place to run into someone and have a brief, heated debate. My goal for next quarter is to be less of an eavesdropper and more of a contributor.