JOHNS | When Cornell Ends

Like most Cornellians, I have not experienced summer in Ithaca. I have, however, experienced the next best thing: the festive and joyful seasons that mark the beginning and end of the school year, during which returning students and graduating seniors, respectively, celebrate the seam of time between their leaving or returning to campus. It is a period defined by its rituals, made up of only one to two weeks of totally disordered time, during which students enjoy the fleeting sunlight and the weeknights without assignments to follow. It is a well understood and near-universally practiced squandering of youth, and a unique and memorable time for any undergraduate. And then, suddenly, it vanishes.