They’ve always been there.

Avery is undoubtedly the best library on campus. That being said, if you don’t study there regularly, please don’t start, because I want to keep studying there without fighting for my life for a seat. I love all the floors of Avery. Even the below-ground floors don’t suck the life out of you like other windowless spaces might (read: the stacks, my shafted dorm room, that one NoCo lecture hall with the tiny blackboards). But the ground floor is definitely the highlight, and I want to make all of you who already study at Avery (others, back off!!) aware of another nice trait the Avery ground floor study space possesses. Not the tall windows, two-story bookshelves, or dark wood aesthetic, which are known delights; no, instead, I’m talking about the little guys under the table.

No one can beat their record for the longest time spent in the library. Their whole lives, presumably, have been spent there. The watchmen of Avery. The things they have witnessed. These little, little guys.

More accurately than little guys, perhaps, is that they are the wooden male faces carved in relief on the table legs. But really, they’re just little guys. A little worn-down, a little chipped, a little covered in used gum (but just a little), but they’re there, and they’re having a good time. I think. Are they? The one I saw today and am about to show you certainly is.

You are me, at an Avery ground floor table, ready to show RStudio how a damn principal component analysis gets done:

And you are stuck, and you need encouragement. Or a diversion. Or anything. And if you just look below… you will see him.

If you forget to look, that’s okay. They’ll always be there, encouraging you, rolling their eyes (emotionally, not literally) at you, cowering under the tables.

Until next time, Avery men.

The men via author and Bwarchives