Today, I learned a big lesson. It's a lesson that took me FOUR years to learn, and it's one that I'm still having trouble accepting, but nevertheless, I have learned it:
The ramp is cool.
I can't believe I actually said it.
The "ramp" is the lovely long path that starts at the southwest end of campus and slowly but surely stretches up to the southeast corner of campus. It is conveniently divided by a railing, segregating bikers from walkers (good thing too, since bikers feel the need to go 150 MPH down the ramp). It is long, anticlimactic, and I was never very fond of it.
My roommates always took "the ramp" - so i've been hearing about its glories for the last three years. Maybe that's why I disliked it so much. I have always been a stair person. I find a strange enjoyment in dashing up the huge staircase that leads to the back of the Maeser. It almost kills you, but just when you think that all is lost (and your pants have practically fallen off and your shirt is drenched in sweat and you're panting louder than most dogs and your face is bright red and your hair has poofed up and naturally seven attractive men have walked past you), you arrive on campus. Voila! You feel like you have climbed a mountain (and you practically have), your legs get toned with each trip to campus, you feel less guilty about eating extra dessert the night before, and the view from the top of the stairs is spectacular. It's an all around good experience. I've been a faithful stair-climber for the past three years.
Imagine my dismay when I returned to Provo this January, fresh from my exciting experiences and feeling slightly bummed to be back in happy valley, only to discover that the staircase had been indefinitely CLOSED. I was furious. I may have even tried to hop the orange fake-fence things... turns out they removed a lot of the concrete. It's hard to climb non-existant stairs. Not only was I frustrated about my favorite route to class being disrupted, I had to resort to taking the ramp. I fought it for a few days- it turns out there are other ways up to campus. It also turns out that these other ways put me nowhere near my desired location and cause my attemped time of arrival to be much later than planned. I finally swallowed my pride and began taking the ramp.
The first few weeks were horrible. I complained to anyone who would listen, saying "The ramp is so boring" or "It's really just the path of least resistance- there's no pain and you get no satisfaction from reaching the top." I also started seeing a lot more people that I knew, which is technically a bad thing because I'm generally in a hurry when walking up the ramp and I tend to be either eating a meal, fixing my hair and/or outfit, or trying to cram in last minute reading.
I started noticing gradual changes each day as I walked up and down the ramp. New bricks, new flowers, new bushes, new walls, new river (?) - it's like BYU was trying to persuade me into loving the ramp. These changes started softening my heart- for example, yesterday I saw a family of ducks in the new architecturally pleasing stream- how can you not appreciate ducks? Especially when surrounded by the freshly landscaped and mulched flower beds and gardens? But today was the real winner. Today was the day that I had stop and say, "Okay. The ramp is cool." I'm walking home from class and this is what I see:
An ice cream stand. They are now selling ice cream on the ramp. For 50 cents. BYU CREAMERY ice cream.
They win.
Now the only thing that could possibly make the ramp better would be to install a ski tow along that railing that pulls us up to campus when it snows.
okay, i'm coming down to walk the ramp just for the ice cream!
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