Ah, the University Life...

Today is the first day that it feels like this:

The day is full of possibility. It's a drizzling gray September morn, and the campus is just beginning to come alive. Like a slumbering giant, the student body stretches and wiggles its way awake, a little at a time. People show up here and there, wizened professors with horn-rimmed glasses and eager students wearing argyle sweaters, carrying soft leather bookbags and walking to class. Some clip along at a brisk pace, racing the clock as the bell tower tolls, its sound reminiscent of another era. Others stroll in pairs, discussing philosophy and science. They drop into the espresso shop, to emerge each clutching a steaming cup of their favorite morning coffee, the drink warming their fingertips through the thick paper. Clusters of historic redbrick buildings loom over the well-worn walkways, where the lines of large oak trees are dropping an occasional browned leaf- warning us that fall is swiftly coming in with the cool winds.