A collection of colors, fonts, and strokes pulled together by the arrows denoting a continuing conversation. Flourishes of pen and brash lines of marker in every direction building upon the thoughts of others.
The writing on the bathroom walls.
Stupid as it sounds, this simple concept that for years has epitomized girl bashing has since, coming to college, become a symbol for me of a different outlook found in collegiates.
I guess I’d been noticing changes since the first day of moving into the dorms. There were more friendly attitudes and a willingness to learn and accept more. Everyone is placed in the same situation where you pretty much know no one, so being cranky and distant is hardly an option if you wish to make friends.
I know in these past months I’ve become more outgoing and have really tried to take in all the different things I encounter.
So when I wandered into the Undergrad Library bathrooms (called the UGL by us cool college kids) for the first time and came across the bland walls splattered by a canvas of comments, I was intrigued. That first stall visit I literally spent minutes reading each one, so sorry if anyone was waiting, but the type of messages were so foreign to a girl freshly out of high school.
In the gossip centered world that high school is portrayed to be and more often than not amounts to, the bathroom stalls are filled with cruel remarks which are frankly a good waste of pen and time. We are trained from the movies we see and the culture created, that these four years will be dominated by whispers spreading like wildfire throughout the halls. Bathroom writing only perpetuates this.
 It is negative “he said, she said” that since coming to college, I have realized that no one really cares about. Don’t get me wrong in that there aren’t the gossip lovers, for there will always be those. But in general, the positives have far outweighed the negatives, bringing a sense of hope to students who are down in the dumps.
Whether it is the absurd or the inspirational, the messages left behind always ensure to leave a laugh or at least leave the visitor in higher spirits.
It’s taking a quick study break and seeing the “You’re Beautiful” among countless quotes that can impact your mindset. It’s a small gesture that attests collegiates care more about the person and less about the fake babbling that filled the high school stalls. It’s a few mere seconds to write a message that does more good than bad. And though I’m not condoning writing on library property, the words already there instill a hope that high school bathrooms kept tearing down.
Maybe I’m blind to the obscene, too centered on all the new, but college has proven to be different. Maybe it’s a mindset or maybe we grow up just a little bit over the summer, but that writing in the UGL stalls definitely demonstrates a higher capacity for inspiration and kindness found in students in a most unlikely place.