Walking Blog #2 (Making an impact at UNR)

            It’s a Sunday morning at 8:45, which means it’s the perfect time to take a walk around the campus of UNR.  As I take my first step out of the front doors to the Living and Learning Community (aka my dorm) I begin to realize how beautiful the morning time can be.  I looked over my shoulder while I was walking away, and I saw “Nevada Living and Learning Community” written in large silver letters over the doorway. The word that stuck out to me was “Community.”  I never really thought about it before, but each and every one of us in this dorm is a part of a community. It’s a place were hundreds of new college students live under the same roof and work towards a common goal: doing well in academics to get a quality education, and enjoying the time we spend here, at UNR with others of similar interests.  In this building, we have created a pleasant environment to live and to study.  We have all done our part to form this environment and I am involved in this by attending RHA meetings and by making sure that I follow all the rules on quiet hours. I also have study sessions with girls who live in my wing and we do homework together and help each other through the transition that we are all making from high school to college.

            I kept walking away from my dorm and towards the Down Under Café to see what they where serving for breakfast this morning, when I saw on the door that the Café does not open until 10:30 on Sundays.  I guess that implies that the average college student is not awake yet and is still sleeping off all the partying they did the night before. This caused me to think about how that means that I am not the average college student. What I really couldn’t believe is that every single student who is still sleeping in their dorm room is missing out on the spectacular morning that is happening right outside their window. 

            I continued to walk, and I needed to cross Virginia Street by Argenta, so I pushed the walk button and within seconds the light tuned into a walking symbol and all the cars driving down Virginia Street had a red light. I crossed the street with a smug look in my eye, because I was proud that my crossing had to stop so many cars.  But as I was walking across, I saw the drivers of the cars and I started to feel bad. I made them all wait at a red light just so that one student could cross the street. I should’ve used the bridge because that wouldn’t inconvenience multiple drivers. My one push of a walk button impacted many people for a split moment of time.  Maybe the bridge is a better idea after all, even if it causes me to walk an extra 100 yards on each side of the street.

            I walked past the Jot Travis Building and around Manzanita Lake. The lake looked absolutely stunning because the sunlight was shinning off it this morning. As I was walking I hear a bird; a very loud bird that was making the noise caw-caw-caw over and over again. How much do I miss everyday when I rush from class to class and don’t take the time to take in my surroundings?  

            Throughout this walk, I am starting to realize that I may not make as much of an impact on where I go as I thought I did. Yes, it’s true that I made multiple cars stop so that I can walk, and I do smile whenever I pass others, but do my everyday actions make a difference?  As I keep walking towards the Joe Crowley Student Union, I passed the Raggio Education Building and I notice a statue in front of it. It’s a statue of four children, and one of the kids is giving a different child flowers, and the look on her face is ecstatic. That’s when I realize once and for all that every action I do makes a difference. When I smile at people, it improves their surroundings. When I say “hi” to the kid that I went to high school with, but never talked to, I start to make them feel more comfortable. When I help the girl who lives across the hall from me with her chemistry homework, it makes her day a little bit easier.  Even though I may not think I have much of an impact on making place here at UNR, I definitely have the ability to make a difference here at my new home.