Dear Pattee and Paterno Library,
You have stood in the same place for 80 years, withstanding the test of time. Housing the future and the past, providing opportunity for the inspired and the burnt-out. How else would we have survived this long if it wasn’t for you?
In the latest hours of the night, those where the sun begins to peak behind the neverending rolling hills, is the only moment when you are truly ever alone. Is the quiet hum of the heat flowing through the skeletal walls of each floor comforting? Do you prefer the sounds of footsteps, typing or the music leaking from the headphones of a passerby?
Yet you never really are alone as you hold the writing of the most celebrated individuals, house historic engravings on the desks in the Stacks, hide a love letter left between the pages of “Pride and Prejudice” signed 1974.
Do you notice the way the time passes? Familiar faces who get the same order at Starbucks every Tuesday and who spend those same two hours in the Stacks may seem to stop coming abruptly. Maybe their schedule has changed, or maybe they have graduated. Do you ever grow the same attachment to them, as they do to you?
Do you know every space you hold? From the study rooms that bring conversation and focus, to the computer lab where the future unfolds on a screen, to the Harry Potter Room which has become a quiet place for the occasional siesta and of course the six stories of the Stacks where a catacomb like web holds generations of history. A student has found inspiration in each one of these places, has written down their future and wished for success.
When a new generation steps foot inside their future home, do you think they experience the same gratitude you do? Your survival is counting on the future, the survival of the future is counting on you. Maybe this gratitude between person and place is not something that can be seen, but something that can be felt. Yet, there is no way to know if this gratitude lives on through the life after Penn State, when the student sets out to face the real world. Do you think they sit in their office, lab or classroom wishing they could see you once again?
How often do you reminisce on the past, a life lived before? What do you feel when you see a familiar face, yet one aged with time and life, brings in a smaller version of themself? This version looks closer to the one you knew almost 30 years ago. How do you feel when they bring their child to the spot they loved for four years, sitting there for hours at a time, marking it theirs with an abbreviation scored into the wooden chair on that final year in ‘96. Do you feel this same joy? Now, their child sits in that chair, spends hours planning on a future in which they hope to live, one day returning to the same spot that has withstood for generations.
We hope to remind you of the role you play on the lives of every single student who walks through your doors. To remind you of the way you provide a space for them to thrive and succeed. To remind you of the impact you make that will last a lifetime. To remind you that this story is one that will be told for generations, one student at a time.
We love you Pattee and Paterno Library, thank you for pushing us towards success.
Love,
VALLEY
xoxo
Where’s your favorite study spot in the library? Let @VALLEYmag know on Instagram!
Related
Finding Your Place on Campus
The Coziest Spots on Campus
Study in Style: The Best Study Spots Around Campus
Very nice post. I simply stumbled upon your weblog and wished to say that I have really enjoyed surfing around your weblog posts. In any case I?ll be subscribing to your rss feed and I am hoping you write once more soon!
Hi there are using WordPress for your site platform? I’m new to the blog world but I’m trying to get started and set up my own. Do you need any html coding expertise to make your own blog? Any help would be greatly appreciated!
It?s actually a nice and useful piece of info. I am happy that you just shared this helpful info with us. Please stay us up to date like this. Thank you for sharing.
You made some respectable factors there. I appeared on the web for the issue and found most people will go together with with your website.
of course like your website but you have to check the spelling on several of your posts. Many of them are rife with spelling issues and I find it very troublesome to tell the truth nevertheless I will certainly come back again.
You made some decent factors there. I seemed on the web for the issue and located most individuals will go together with together with your website.
This article is a breath of fresh air! The author’s distinctive perspective and perceptive analysis have made this a truly engrossing read. I’m thankful for the effort she has put into crafting such an educational and thought-provoking piece. Thank you, author, for providing your wisdom and igniting meaningful discussions through your brilliant writing!
Simply want to say your article is as amazing. The clarity for your submit is just spectacular and i could suppose you’re an expert on this subject. Fine with your permission let me to grasp your RSS feed to stay up to date with imminent post. Thanks 1,000,000 and please keep up the enjoyable work.
Together with every little thing which seems to be developing throughout this specific subject matter, many of your points of view are very radical. Nonetheless, I am sorry, because I do not give credence to your whole theory, all be it exhilarating none the less. It seems to everyone that your comments are generally not completely validated and in fact you are your self not entirely convinced of your assertion. In any case I did take pleasure in reading it.
I just like the valuable information you supply in your articles. I?ll bookmark your weblog and test once more right here frequently. I’m quite sure I?ll be told many new stuff right here! Best of luck for the next!