Arranging the Center

After all of my classes, I headed to the center with Windex, Endust, and rags. As soon as I got there, I unloaded my bags and got to work on cleaning everything off from all of the dust that coated the new furniture. With every wipe, I became more and more excited as the vision of a completed center filled my mind.

Before long, Vicki, Sara, Chimi, and Rebecca, all former students, had arrived. (I had called them earlier in the day, asking them for their help.) As soon as they all walked through the doorway, their eyes went wide and ah's escaped from their lips. We quickly went to work moving the furniture around, coordinating the layout in my head with the actual space. While we carried and then adjusted each piece of furniture, the girls continued to look at everything that the English Department had purchased, saying, "I can't believe they bought this all for us," time and time again.

Once everything was finally in it's place, I invited them to sit down with me. We looked over the room, trying to decide if everything was where it should be. With their keen eyes, they made some suggestions, and together we made a few more moves. With all of us feeling like everything was finally perfect, we sat down once again while continuing to look over the room. There were sofas and chairs to foster discussions and relaxation, shelves waiting to be filled, tables and chairs for being leaned over while working on homework or for holding a game of Connect Four, and four listening stations. We all sat in silence briefly, all of us in a quiet awe of what was to be.

My former students, now friends, started discussing the center. All of them continued to be amazed at the fact that the department was creating such a place for it's students. They said that it not only would be the best place on campus for the students, but that it would encourage interest and improvement in English majors that are discouraged, not to mention non-English majors. By having the center, the girls said, they they felt like the department and university really cared about them.


Since I and everyone else seemd to be having such a great time, I invited them all out for shao kao (bbq). With the exchange of glances, everyone shook their head in agreement. Before I headed out the door, I took one last look. After a year, my dream for the students was finally coming true.