Do we really grow as people or are we all still middle schoolers on the inside?

C.V. Starr East Asian Library
If you study at the East Asian Library, you are the older sibling who was in eighth grade while your younger sibling was in sixth grade. Your parents only started to go to all the middle school events that year, causing you to think that your parents favor your little sibling. So, you tried to become the best student in class to please your parents, but they only ever noticed you when you made a mistake. Do you like to surround yourself with work so that you can ignore the feeling that you’re not doing enough?

Mathematics Library
If you go to the Mathematics Library to work, then you never went out to play during recess in middle school. You ate your lunch, and if you had the opportunity, you would go back to your favorite teacher’s room and sit in there for 45 minutes. If you were forced to go outside, you brought Percy Jackson, Warriors, or Harry Potter with you to go read outside. Your teachers were always a little bit worried about you because you didn’t socialize with the other kids, but you were always happy being alone.

Business and Economics Library in Uris
Anyone who works in this library definitely told their parents that they were going to a friend’s house to “work on a project” and proceeded to play in the backyard all day. If this is your favorite, you go to the library because you really should be doing work, but you end up talking to your friends the whole time.

Butler Library
In middle school, you were the gifted kid who was in all the advanced, accelerated classes. You may have even skipped a grade. The older you got, however, the more burned out you were, but you couldn’t stop this pace of working. Your parents expected a level of excellence from you that you had to give them to receive their love. Now, you’re depressed, overworked, and really bad at time management. Because of this, the only way you ever get anything done is if you leave your assignment (that’s definitely worth 50% of your grade) to the night before. Then, you grind for several hours in Butler, submit it at 11:59 pm, and somehow still get a 90% or above on it.

Milstein Undergraduate Library
In Milstein, you are always on display for everyone. If your go-to library is Milstein, you were a Kumon kid. Your parents drove you to the Kumon Center multiple times a week so that you could sit in the room and do math two levels higher than your grade level. Now, you can’t imagine doing work without someone constantly being able to watch you at all times.

Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library
If you study on the first floor of Avery, you were always praised for sitting in the front of your middle school classes, being one of the first students to turn in your tests, and doing your homework as soon as you got home. How’s that praise kink going?

Lehman Social Sciences Library
To be honest, this library scares me a little bit. It’s located in the basement of the School of International and Public Affairs, which already looks incredibly gray and depressing. If this is your favorite library, you were always the “weird kid” who was picked last for dodgeball and ate lunch by yourself or with the other outcasts. To this day, when you have work, you tend to just go to the library, sit down, and work; you aren’t drowning in work or super stressed about your next midterm.

Science & Engineering Library
NoCo is that library that you go to pull an all-nighter in. If this is your go-to library, your parents always pushed you in middle school to take all the advanced classes, learn a musical instrument, and play a sport. You were always micromanaged and never allowed to have a sleepover unless you gave them at least a two-week notice. Now, you overwork yourself to feel as busy and fulfilled as you did in middle school.

No Library
If you don’t go to a library to do your work, you definitely sat at your dining room table before dinner doing homework. Your parents were never worried about you academically or socially. You were never the problem child, and your parents always bragged about how easy it was to raise you. You always turn in your assignments on time, go to all your classes, and study adequately for every exam. You don’t seek validation in life, but deep down inside, you feel empty. You don’t know why, but something is off in your life, and you keep on thinking—even though your parents were the best—that if you were raised slightly differently, everything would be better. Maybe you just need a library in your life.

GO STUDY via bwarchives