Coastal [h.s]

five

SOPHOMORE YEAR // OCTOBER

~HARRY~

The library at UCSD was without a doubt my favorite place on campus, besides the art studios of course. But when I had to do work that required sitting at a desk, that was always where I could be found. Midterms were ending but that didn't mean my workload slowed down. There was always something to do.

For the most part I loved my classes. All of my art courses, whether required or elective, were amazing. I had never experienced actually liking what I was doing in school before and it felt so good to be motivated to do well simply because I loved something. Simply for me.

It was the law classes that I hated. In order for my parents to pay for me to go to school I was required to be a pre-law student, which I hated for a multitude of reasons.

I hated that they had to pay for my school at all, but since they had paid for everything my whole life, I had no other way to get a degree. I hated that they knew where I was and what I was doing. I hated that I was in these classes with kids who were only there so they could have a career that would make them money. I hated doing something that pleased them. I hated it all.

But as much as I hated it, I did it anyway. I still wanted to do well in school, for me not for my parents, so I worked hard even in the most boring classes, and I made it work. I did it almost to spite them. To show them that I could be an amazing, successful lawyer, that I wasn't doing it because I couldn't but because I wouldn't.

I would rather spend my time in the library doing anything besides taking notes for "American Legal History since 1865" but there I was, the thickest textbook I had ever seen and my notebook open wide with different colored pens sprawled across the table. If I was going to take notes for something I hated, I would at least make them look nice.

My headphones were in with quiet classical study music playing as I scanned through each page, writing down the most important information into my notebook. My colored pen note-taking system was highly specific and detailed. Every time I was taking notes there were three pens and one pencil involved. One color was for vocabulary words or super important information, one color was for headings, and one color was for the little arrows I drew as bullet points. I tried to switch up my choice of colors every time I took notes but stayed in either a cool or warm color scheme for each class. American Legal History was a cool toned class so today I was using a lilac, grey, and teal pen. As I went over the word "gerrymandering" with the teal I realized it almost exactly matched the sweater I was wearing and lightly smiled.

I was trying so hard to focus, but law was boring, reading textbooks was boring, and I was getting antsy. I capped my pen and closed my notebook for a second to take a people-watching break.

This was my second favorite part of the library. I could've sat for hours watching all the different people come in and out. Whether they were sitting at a table in a study group or browsing the many rows of books the library had to offer, it never got old. People watching was an activity I had learned growing up. When I would get bored at the club and Jaxon was off with his parents I would sit in one of the large backed chairs near the entrance and watch as the club members filtered in and out. A lot of the members I knew from being introduced to them by my parents in hopes I would make connections with the right people for my future. But the members I didn't know or the guests who were visiting while on vacation were foreign people to me so I could think anything I wanted about them.