Springtime is near (hopefully, if it stops snowing); that means the end of the semester for UW-Madison students is also near. While college students may be exhausted with school, eager high school students will take the day off from their simple lives just to tour our campus. Now don’t get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed my UW-Madison tour — I had never been on the campus before, and it was a whole new world to me — but as a current student at the university, there is nothing more annoying than the sight of a tour group. A hundred thoughts go through my head every time I try to walk pass tours to continue on my merry way; here are a few of them:
1. Ah, the glory days. I remember touring colleges.
2. Why are these people walking so slowly? I have to get to a class that’s 20 minutes across campus, please move!
3. I bet these people have no idea how much they’re going to be taking out in student loans… I should’ve picked a cheaper school.
4. I’m trapped in the middle of this tour group. SOS!
5. I bet you this kid is only touring because they heard we’re the #1 party school.
6. Ah, how easy high school life was.
7. I could never be a tour guide! I’m not that nice; I would have to fake it.
8. Why did they push the crosswalk button? WHY? Thank you crosswalk-machine-man; I know what street I’m crossing — no need to announce it.
9. Eh, high schoolers.
10. Of course I chose to go to the Daily Scoop at the same time as a tour group. Look at them, all smug turning in their free Babcock coupons without a care in the world.
11. I wonder how much tour guides get paid…
12. Why are they all staring at me?
13. Honestly, kid, you’re on a college tour and you’re going to make your mom hold your tour bag? Psh, children.
14. Are they really going to take up the entire sidewalk and not let me pass? Yes, yes they are.
College is fantastic; I’m beyond grateful that I toured UW-Madison because I’ve never felt more at home. I remember at the very end of my tour, the guide said she had just recently graduated college and was giving us her very last tour. As she was telling my group this, she began to cry. From that moment on, I knew what this young graduate had experienced in her four years at Madison had to have been something special, and I knew I wanted a piece of that too. Madison is the place to be; but for all of you high schoolers out there, you will understand in time what these 14 passing thoughts mean. Trust me, you’ll grumble along with the rest of us.