给我心爱的图书馆书桌……

Three and a half years ago — so young, bright-eyed, eager — I was ready to dig into 我一年级的一些阅读 斯克里布纳尔出版社研讨会. This was college reading, and it was time to get serious. 我走进了露西 Scribner Library, overwhelmed by my seating options. 你就在那里，像灯塔一样 ——完美的办公桌.

我知道. 我知道. You’re just a desk and you’re not even by the window! 但是有 something special about this place, where people come as individuals but gather collectively 研究.

Little did 我知道 that, over the years I’d spend with you, I’d form a special comradery 和我们三楼的同学一起.

An unspoken and unbreakable bond, it will be filled with unified glances when we hear a loud conversation or empathic smiles acknowledging shared disappointment when one’s 平常的座位被另一个人占了. 

After years, hundreds of hours and late nights together, I may not know these other studiers well, but they will forever be engrained in my memories of Skidmore. 

So, dear desk and nameless friends, I sit with you once again. 还有我的最后一个学期 at Skidmore ahead of me, I wonder, “How can I ever honor you?”

Here it goes: a letter, an ode of sorts to my desk in the library.  

亲爱的图书馆服务台: 

谢谢你！. 

谢谢你！ for letting me spend hours poring over thousands of pages of reading, giving 没有其他人有机会坐在那里. 

谢谢你！ for being there as I wrote my very first college essay. 我都不记得了 what it was about, only the fear I felt as the midnight deadline crept up on me. 

I edited it over and over again, eventually emailing it to my mom for a final read. Don’t worry: this was the first and last time I asked my mother to proof my college 工作.

谢谢你！ for letting me sit there, simply to fill 20 minutes between obligations by scrolling through LinkedIn for internships and jobs, and sometimes checking out 服装.

And when I’m not browsing sweaters, thank you for fostering a productive environment. 写作受阻或午后困倦? 你总是在那里.

谢谢你！ for letting me practically move in for finals season — arriving first thing in the morning with all of my possessions — bringing scarves to be worn as blankets, a large mug of coffee, my Skidmore water bottle, and a collection of pens and highlighters 它似乎总是不见了.

Remember when I would leave to go to the dining hall for what I intended to be short, 30分钟学习休息时间? Let’s be real: you and I both know this always turned into at least a two-hour, much-needed conversation with friends over many plates of food. (谢谢你，D-Hall!)

Speaking of food, thank you for letting me bring piles of snacks and never even wincing for the traces of cracker and granola bar crumbs that were left behind. 我经常 return the next day with a slight sense of shame that I had disgraced you so. (对不起 感谢我的同事们.)

谢谢你！ for tolerating my presence even when I came down with bronchitis that one time. Tissue box in hand, I couldn’t stop sneezing and coughing on the silent third floor where even the drop of a pen feels like something to apologize for.

谢谢你！ to the chair in the next cubicle for letting me prop up my feet when I got 累了，当我摔断了脚 that time I fell off my bed on Chicken Finger Friday.

谢谢你！ for forgiving me that one semester I left you cold and alone while I studied 在意大利国外. Please know, the desks there weren’t nearly as good as you.

And thank you to my unnamed friends studying nearby. 你知道你是谁. 我们是一个 army of desk protectors, welcoming invaders when we must, but doing so with a back 转身叹息.

支持. 舒适的. 满足我的一切需要. 我永远感激我的 most loyal college companion and cannot wait to visit you for years to come.

爱,
珍妮

After all this, you might be wondering where this legendary desk is.

好吧，我来告诉你. 但是请不要坐在那里. (我在开玩笑……有点开玩笑.)

First, enter the staircase by the circulation desk. 这是重要的一步. If you take a different entrance you’ll end up walking in a weird loop. 走到三 flights, catch your breath and then continue to walk straight until you hit a dead 小隔间的终结. And there it is, tucked away against the wall, perpendicular from 靠窗的那些宽敞的桌子.

I will soon complete my final semester and, all too soon, prepare to graduate and 离开这个地方.

To whomever it may be that finds this desk next, take good care of it.

And I am really sorry if there are still some crumbs there.