Goodbye is Not in My Vocabulary
Especially...when it comes to my trusted sanctuary: the gym.
There are so many things I like about the Pottruck Gym. Besides the obvious. I mean it's easy for an exercise fanatic to fall in love with a 5 tiered building dedicated to quenching their passion for calorie expenditure and tone perfection. Even on the most crowded days during the semester, one can trust to get a machine without enduring a horrendous 20 minute wait.
I first discovered the wonders of Pottruck second semester of my freshman year. I had been going on and off with my roomate first semester, but the loyalty never came until later. For whatever reason, I decided that I wanted to start a strict exercise regime. My determination started with 30 minutes a day on the treadmill, five days a week. Although I saw other machines, quite frankly they confused and intimidated me. I didn't know how to use a lot of them, and the ellipticals seemed downright dangerous. Still, gradually, I began to familiarize myself with the other instruments of weight loss gratification. Like any good trader or financial advisor, I knew the importance of diversifying my portfolio. I would switch it up, going from treadmill to elliptical and sometimes if I felt daring enough, even the rowing machine. Nowadays I am no stranger to weights, balance balls (or whatever they're called), and any other machines that might have been strange and exotic in my novice days.
As for the atmosphere of pottruck, well let's just say that there isn't much to be coveted when it comes to the surroundings of a gym. The combination of smelling sweat and listening to grunts from men who clearly are giving themselves a hernia from lifting too heavy was not a pleasant accompaniment. Still to me, Pottruck was home. It was something I never failed. I sucked at studying, I sucked at maintaining relationships with people, attending class, punctuality, etc etc but I never sucked at Pottruck. Even when I was dating someone, I never neglected my hourly trips to the gym. Mock my entry, my ode to Pottruck gym if you will, but for one moment consider my sincerity. College was a never ending series of experiences for me, some pleasant, some just downright nasty. There wasn't one semester where I wasn't changing my major, my ideals, my friends, my roomates, my habits, or most importantly myself. Whether these changes were for the better, that's not important right now. But there comes a point in everyone's (and I mean EVERYONE) life when we crave for some degree of stability. I'm not sure if stability is actually the most appropriate in this sense but maybe consistency? Even for those personalities that crave change...but unknowest to everyone, there is consistency in CONSTANTLY craving change. Anyway, my point was that life is about growth, new experiences, and new lessons. These have a way of sneaking up on us in the most unexpected and sometimes even most unpleasant manner. People counterbalance this effect by searching for sanctuary, some kind of a security blanket they know they can trust and rely on to always be there. For me, pottruck was my sanity against a tulmultuous and capricious college life. It was where I sought shelter when the growing pains kicked in. And like a true friend that's being paid for its services, it never failed me.
For some reason, and call me mad, but my college diploma has been sitting on my desk for weeks and it just hit me on Tuesday, August 15th, when they informed me that my penn ID would no longer swipe for the gym, that I realized my days as a carefree and obnoxious undergraduate are over.
There are so many things I like about the Pottruck Gym. Besides the obvious. I mean it's easy for an exercise fanatic to fall in love with a 5 tiered building dedicated to quenching their passion for calorie expenditure and tone perfection. Even on the most crowded days during the semester, one can trust to get a machine without enduring a horrendous 20 minute wait.
I first discovered the wonders of Pottruck second semester of my freshman year. I had been going on and off with my roomate first semester, but the loyalty never came until later. For whatever reason, I decided that I wanted to start a strict exercise regime. My determination started with 30 minutes a day on the treadmill, five days a week. Although I saw other machines, quite frankly they confused and intimidated me. I didn't know how to use a lot of them, and the ellipticals seemed downright dangerous. Still, gradually, I began to familiarize myself with the other instruments of weight loss gratification. Like any good trader or financial advisor, I knew the importance of diversifying my portfolio. I would switch it up, going from treadmill to elliptical and sometimes if I felt daring enough, even the rowing machine. Nowadays I am no stranger to weights, balance balls (or whatever they're called), and any other machines that might have been strange and exotic in my novice days.
As for the atmosphere of pottruck, well let's just say that there isn't much to be coveted when it comes to the surroundings of a gym. The combination of smelling sweat and listening to grunts from men who clearly are giving themselves a hernia from lifting too heavy was not a pleasant accompaniment. Still to me, Pottruck was home. It was something I never failed. I sucked at studying, I sucked at maintaining relationships with people, attending class, punctuality, etc etc but I never sucked at Pottruck. Even when I was dating someone, I never neglected my hourly trips to the gym. Mock my entry, my ode to Pottruck gym if you will, but for one moment consider my sincerity. College was a never ending series of experiences for me, some pleasant, some just downright nasty. There wasn't one semester where I wasn't changing my major, my ideals, my friends, my roomates, my habits, or most importantly myself. Whether these changes were for the better, that's not important right now. But there comes a point in everyone's (and I mean EVERYONE) life when we crave for some degree of stability. I'm not sure if stability is actually the most appropriate in this sense but maybe consistency? Even for those personalities that crave change...but unknowest to everyone, there is consistency in CONSTANTLY craving change. Anyway, my point was that life is about growth, new experiences, and new lessons. These have a way of sneaking up on us in the most unexpected and sometimes even most unpleasant manner. People counterbalance this effect by searching for sanctuary, some kind of a security blanket they know they can trust and rely on to always be there. For me, pottruck was my sanity against a tulmultuous and capricious college life. It was where I sought shelter when the growing pains kicked in. And like a true friend that's being paid for its services, it never failed me.
For some reason, and call me mad, but my college diploma has been sitting on my desk for weeks and it just hit me on Tuesday, August 15th, when they informed me that my penn ID would no longer swipe for the gym, that I realized my days as a carefree and obnoxious undergraduate are over.
posted by Mix at 12:50 AM
3 Comments:
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Yeah, I had a moment like that too. I had a dream near the end of July where I was panicking because I thought- OMG! It's nearly August! Why haven't I registered for next semester's courses yet? So I pull out the infamous big red course book and I'm flipping through it with two friends and looking at weird math and science classes. I wake up in the morning and realize that I'm never returning to that college again. And then I realize that even though that place has given me some of the most traumatizing moments of my life, it's the only place I've known for the past 4 year. For four years of my life that place was my entire world. Although in one part of my mind I realize that I've left the place, the rest of me is there there.
I can also relate to the need for some constancy. I needed a place where I can hide and feel safe from the rest of the world. I'm not an exercising person, more of couch potato so exercising really doesn't do it for me. I just hid in my room and watched - anime!
I don't think my friends quite understood my need to just be alone. They thought I was trying to avoid them, but it wasn't them I was trying to avoid, I just needed a break from having to face life and the world.
College was tough.
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