Response to Throkr's

I obviously wrote this some time ago. I also clearly BS'd it pretty badly. Seems like the kind of thing I turned in 30 seconds before it was due, as opposed to one minute before.

English 111
September 6, 2007
The Lobbyists
Upon entering the lobby you are blasted by a vent of cold air. A commotion of voices from the font desk will find their way into your ear as you hear the double doors click behind you. Without actively thinking about it, you look over to the corner, perhaps a sound from the high-definition TV distracted you. Suddenly, you feel compelled to walk over and see what is playing. You are bombarded by a welcoming of “Hellos,” “What ups,” and “Hows it goin's” by the patrons of the corner. These are the Kreischer-Compton Lobbyists. While it may seem trivial, this dedicated group of individuals is drawn to the lobby by choice of entertainment, comfort, and ownership.
The most exciting place to be, from the entire Bowling Green State University campus, is this particular lobby. There is a high-definition television with a bass-boost, DVD player, and cable. There is a Macintosh computer with high speed internet. Above all else there are people there; always. There is a constant stream of passer byes and a consistent group of lobby users. It is a rare occurrence that an ESPN watcher is not utilizing the TV, and that someone isn't checking their email or facebook on the computer. Alternatively, a very interesting experience can come from just sitting and watching and listening from the lobby itself. The area here is much like a traffic intersection. People from all different areas converge on this one floor space for different reasons and some with complex plans. Many people who come to the lobby at night are there to meet someone or to find somewhere to go. By day the lobby thru traffic is there to cut corners and take a shortcut to class. But it is not uncommon to see a person or group drawn in by morning cartoons or exciting sports updates. Ultimately, the lobbyists were all once travelers just passing through. But slowly, they came together to form their group which will inevitably gain more people with time. Who can resist the lobbyists gaming activities like Balderdash, Pictionary, and Boggle? Or wonderful movies like Equilibrium, The Boondock Saints, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Would this kind of group, and sometimes even crowd, fit into a dorm room? Would the dorms on the other side of the wall and across the hall tolerate that kind of noise? There is no question that people have more fun when they are together watching these movies.
But what is entertainment and fun without the comfort to experience it? The lounge is filled with an assortment of very, very comfy chairs and couches. In all there are nine sets of seats with a full capacity of 15 possible seats excluding the floor. All these seats and the comfortable couches would never fit in a dorm room, or even a dorm lounge. The only place for this setup is the lobby. But not only are the seating arrangements comfortable, the entire room is quite visually easy. With brick and glass as the walls, the room does not feel closed off. At night the lighting is soft and warm, during the day it's natural. Tables sit conveniently in front of the couches for books and laptops. A simple metronome clock hangs on the wall quietly keeping track of the ticking time. If one actually observes the time closely, however, they would realize that it actually slows down completely. During the day and into the evening the conversations will not strike in any weird ways; college students talking about their days and the funny things that happened and the even funnier things that should have happened. But come 1 and 2 am, you may here of deep political motivations, philosophical discussions, and maybe even conspiracy theories. Rumors suggest an oncoming short story reading.
But why the lobby; is it really that entertaining and comfortable? There are plenty of relaxing and exciting places on campus outside of the dorm building to experience people. College is a unique experience with one very detrimental downside. With all the people around who are basically strangers, it is impossible to find any space that is exclusively their's. As one's time is spent somewhere, that place will slowly become theirs just out of sheer appreciation. This is very much a desire of ownership; to have something of their own. This is said without even taking into account that logistically, it makes sense to have a public meeting area because there are people from the lobbyist group from both sides of the dorm so the lobby acts very much as a central meeting location. With the power of a group in the lobby there is no threat in anyway, forgetting the sorority meetings of course. But even in this conflict there was a certain hilarity about the entire ordeal sympathetic to the lobbyists. It is not arguable that the lobby offers a kind of recognizable ownership that the dorm room just cannot afford.
The lobby is far more than just a lobby. On par with the first Greek forums and far more productive than the U.S. Senate, this room not only literally upholds the rest of the building, but the social ideals for which the building was constructed. Everyone goes to college with social ambitions and the lobby is many ways completes some people's ability to meet those goals. The lobbyists have realized this intriguing idea and have internalized it. Because of this, they have become as much of the lobby, and maybe even more of the lobby than any table or chair in it. If you were to go to lobby and find these lobbyists and see who they are your idea of the lobby would change. I promise that if you were to return without the lobbyists there, something would be missing. For the rest of Bowling Green State University, the lobbyists are just as much an idea as they are a group of people. Founded by the elusive longing of entertainment and comfort, they have found both, and each other simultaneously finding ownership too. They are the KCD lobbyists.