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1) The Construction

 I woke up to the sound of my alarm clock on Saturday morning and immediately was confused. Why hadn’t those ever-present beeps and crashes that give our campus that magic touch woken me up hours before? It hadn’t occurred to me until then, but I realized I’d have to go without that lovely cacophony for nine whole days. This made me very sad. Well rested, sure, but sad.

2) The Shower

My sadness only continued as I made my way to the bathroom. I pulled back my shower curtain and not only were there no empty cans of Natural Light to greet me, but there was not the familiar mixture of dirt and hair that had really come to embody the Notre Dame spirit for me. This break was going be longer than I thought.

3) The Emails

I thought perhaps by sorting through my emails, I could take my mind off the tragedy of the morning. I was wrong. There were simply no emails to sort through. In fact, I only received 23 during the whole break. 23! What else am I supposed to do? Relax? How can I relax without knowing what promotional offers Notre Dame Tickets and Marketing has up its sleeve?

4) The Prices

I thought a trip to the local Wal-Mart might help, but as I walked through the checkout line, I was once again hit with a gust of the gloomies. All the money I saved really reminded me how much I missed all my friends at school. There’s nothing like paying $3.50 for a CLIF bar to really make you feel like a part of the Notre Dame family.

5) The Sprinklers

The last and perhaps the biggest pang of melancholy hit me on the walk back to my house. I got all the way there and realized that I was completely dry. Not a single sprinkler had doused me with water during the whole walk back. The only sprinklers I saw were actually pointed at grass! Can you believe it? I never realized how much I would miss our good ole’ campus. Soon my clothes were soaked after all … with my tears.