by Finding Study Space
The Graduate Library
The UGLiUndergraduate Libraryis where freshmen study when we’re pretending to be serious students. It’s six floors of desperation, caffeine, and increasingly questionable life choices. First floor is social space where nobody actually studies. Second floor is where people pretend to study while mostly scrolling TikTok. Third floor is where actual studying begins. Sixth floor is where dreams go to die during finals week. There are unspoken rules about library seating. Booths are premium real estate, claimed early and defended viciously. Individual desks are acceptable. Group tables are for people who hate themselves enough to study near others.
The Quiet Floor Enforcement
Bean bags are for people who’ve given up entirely and are just napping between nervous breakdowns. I’m currently at group table, which tells you everything about my organizational skills and life choices. Fourth floor is designated quiet floor. This means people aggressively shush anyone making noise above whisper level. Someone’s pencil falls. Twenty heads snap toward the sound with murderous glares. Someone sneezes. The shushes are immediate and intense. It’s less study space than surveillance state where everyone monitors everyone else for acoustic violations. Like Father Christmas monitoring behavior, except instead of naughty lists, we have death glares.
The Late Night Crowd
After midnight, the library fills with specific demographics: pre-med students who’ve forgotten what sunlight looks like, engineering majors solving problem sets that could probably launch satellites, and Literature majors like me writing essays about books we read three hours ago after procrastinating for two weeks. We’re united by poor planning and deep regret. The library has café that serves coffee strong enough to revive the dead. I’ve developed dependency that concerns my roommate but seems normal here. Everyone’s drinking coffee at all hours. I’ve seen people order espresso at 11 PM like that’s reasonable beverage choice before bed.
The Finals Week Transformation
This is fine. Everything is fine. Sleep is for people without deadlines. I’m told the library becomes completely different place during finals. Every seat taken. Students sleeping on floors. Crying in bathrooms. Building operating on borrowed time and borrowed energy and borrowed sanity. Satirical observers would note this prepares us for workplace culture where we’ll also sacrifice health for productivity. Can’t wait for that particular dystopian future. At least I’ll have library nostalgia.
