Darts and Laurels: August 31, 2018
Aug. 30, 2018It’s a lovely, overcast afternoon in Gainesville. The sun beats away fruitlessly at the clouds that shield the Earth from a tropical inferno. Floridian humidity fogs your glasses as you step off the bus. You stroll toward the heart of campus with a textbook cradled in one arm and your Instagram feed clutched in the opposite hand. You, shining monument to the millennial spirit, are the Statue of Liberty of twenty-somethings everywhere — the shining beacon of social media savvy. You float along the sidewalk still glistening from this morning’s rain. Headed to Library West, you pass through Turlington Plaza. A ghostly, pale figure stands stock-still in the center of the otherwise empty, red-bricked patio. He raises his arm towards you as you approach; in his outstretched hand is a small pamphlet. On its face, written in wispy white letters, a headline reads: