WSU

There is one (and only one) thing that I love about Wayne State University: the graffiti. Specifically, the graffiti etched, paint-penned, sharpied, and penciled all over the inside stalls of the girls bathrooms. Where you might expect obscenities, ridicule, and just plain stupid stuff, at Wayne you find inspiration. Everything I have ever read on a stall on campus has been uplifting, hopeful, encouraging. One common tag, done in bubbly letters with a silver sharpie, reads "It Gets Better" with a little heart next to it. Sometimes people will affirm these statements or even add a bit to them, like "it really does, I promise!" and "you are amazing!" At first, I thought all of the inspiration was sort of over-done. It seemed to me that these young humanists were being dramatic. How tough could their lives really be?

As the weeks wore on, this attitude began to shift. With each passing day, things got harder. I started to mix up my vectors in physics and confuse bits of the skull in anatomy. I was slipping behind, even though I spent (nearly) every moment studying or dreaming about what I had studied. Despite my efforts, I was faced with the threat of failure, something that I rarely have the guts to challenge myself to come anywhere near.

I was reading the graffiti with less critique every day. After reading, I would think to myself, that's nice! in an "I'm not so sure if I am being sarcastic or genuine" sort of way. I was beginning to relate to the writers. On one particularly miserable day, I found myself hoping the silver-pen girl was telling the truth.

Sure, there are some downsides to going to school here. But there is a sort of solidarity that emanates from the bathroom stalls as people go in, downtrodden, and come out knowing that they are not alone in their struggle, and that someone out there cares enough to tell them so.