Telling Time

It's 7:55 a.m. in Ada. As I make my nice half a mile walk to my 8 a.m. class something dawns on me. I can tell that we have moved in time. I don't have to look at a clock, I don't have to look at a calendar, and the weather has not changed enough to spark anything. It is the students.

It is a nice 75 degrees out nothing to out of the ordinary for a September morning. I am wearing a sweatshirt and the same sweatpants I slept in the night before. The strategy behind this outfit is to maximize sleep. Not caring what other people think of me or what they think about what I am wearing. As my eyes scan the tundra and then the sidewalks to the Dicke College of Business I realize I am not the only one with this strategy. There are freshman girls you can tell have been up for hours to get ready and do their makeup. Most however have adapted the week four I don't care strategy. 

Walking down the small campus of ONU students have adjusted to college life. No longer do you see these well thought out outfits looking to find their college sweetheart. Now it is how can I roll out of bed the latest and get to class on time. You see more sweatshirts, hoodies, sweatpants, joggers, and leggings than ever before. You see less curled hair and makeup and more hats and messy buns. 

It is the middle weeks of the fall semester at Ohio Northern University. I did not have to look at a calendar to know that. Just look to the sleep deprived students across the campus and what they are wearing to their first classes in the morning. It is amazing how much you can learn not from looking at a clock, or a smartphone, or a watch, but looking at the people around you.