An Ode to U-Haul

It’s that time again. U-Haul trucks are much more prevalent on the streets of town. They’re back—roughly 32,000 students are descending on town after three months of relative quiet in town. Certainly the local merchants are glad to see the students, and their wallets, return. For us locals, we kind of get used to the lack of traffic on the roads and not having long waits at local restaurants. All of that will change this week.

The start of fall semester brings an air of anticipation as well as trepidation that the start of spring simply lacks. You have the incoming freshman beginning their university experience, for the most part unaware that the coming four years will shape their lives and careers forever. There’s also the collective attaching of everyone’s ego to the football team and the promise of the upcoming season. Plus there are all the experiences that go along with football games: tailgating, eating & drinking with friends, cheering the team on in Sanford Stadium, puking on the sidewalk post-game while a friend takes your picture on their cell phone and then immediately posts it on Facebook with the caption, “Dude! Look at who’s blowing chunks!”

For me, the start of fall semester is like hearing the whistle of an incoming artillery shell—I just duck, close my eyes, and hope for the best. There’s just so much that can go wrong to a class schedule in the weeks leading up to the beginning of the semester. Multiple classes have been scheduled for the same classroom, students have been confused because I forgot to update a room assignment in the course scheduling system, or the worst case scenario, having an instructor back out of a course—that has a full enrollment of students—just a couple of weeks before classes start. Yes, that did happen to me last year. Fortunately we were able to find a replacement instructor at the last minute and salvage the class. It will be harder to do that this year as we’re only one month into the fiscal year and already have had a 4% budget cut.

So quiet time is over for our little town. Now don’t get me wrong; students add a lot to this place, usually in a positive way, though not always. Fall leases for apartments took effect as of August 1, and the dorms open in a couple of days. If you are looking for me within the next week, I’ll either be dodging U-Haul trucks or in the corner of my office, ducking, eyes closed, hoping for the best.