It wasn’t just the lights that went out at the library and Norris Tuesday night — it was also the last flicker of our hopes. This was the week of pain: Midterms ravaged the student body and Chicagoland reduced us to a pile of “wintry mix” mush.
Super Tuesday was its own endurance test: Those who wanted to “Barack the vote” (read: all of NU) were mostly just pissed off that Hillary won more delegates than the Illinois senator when the polls finally closed. It’s safe to say Ron Paul supporters weren’t too happy either, since he garnered a total of 16 delegates, but we know they’re made of strong stock. After all, they outsmarted campus Obama supporters, whose paint washed out on the Rock by morning while the Paul supporters’ genius cloth-and-duct-tape approach remained steadfastly legible.
The momentous cancellation of night classes on Wednesday (the university’s first snow day since 1979) also had us sniffing the air in shameless hope of more Thursday free time. Crushed again: All of the engineers, who had at least two midterms on Thursday, filed into class like a pack of North Face-clad zombies.
The continued invasion of Greenpeace solicitors didn’t make this week any easier to bear. Though they aren’t quite as annoying as last week’s LaRouche supporters, they still make crossing Sheridan at the Arch and thus risking death by SUV collision look more attractive than having to shoo one of them off. How do you say “leave me the fuck alone” in words these people can understand?
All that aching and stress won’t make us any smarter, according to a recent Feinberg School of Medicinestudy, which found that chronic pain can cause negative changes in brain functions, including sleep deprivation, depression and anxiety. If that means the university plans to relieve our pain, I’d suggest a campus-wide cancellation of exams a la Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
It was a burdensome few days for the Associated Student Government, too: the February issue of the Northwestern Chronicle bemoaned ASG’s alleged decision to declare our student body in favor of dropping charges against Jena Six, and some tasty questions were raised about how much of the government’s activities fee budget actually benefits the average student.
There’s always the chance we’ll ease our pain by immersing ourselves in the arts this weekend: The Jewish Theatre Ensemble’s production of Hair, the Northwestern University Dance Program’s play THRUSH, or the spicier South Asian Students Alliance’s exhibition of exotic Indian dance at the SASA Show 2008.
Or we might just down a few handfuls of ibuprofen and forget all about it.