Staff writer Emorie Hayes invites you to spend more time at the John Jay rotunda.

Chilly cobblestone flooring greets my derriere as I take a seat under the rotunda, the one with the last lick of Columbia’s original blue coating its ceiling as it has cemented its place across from John Jay Hall, the dining hall buzzing with university ants marching in and out, walking in famished, and leaving quite content. 

My fingers trace the cracks of the flooring, feeling the true age of it right under my fingertips. The rotunda stands before Hartley’s construction, jutting out like an oversized sore thumb, coveted by most and a cultivator of some of the best conversations.

The first few nights of NSOP, dancing between friends, drifting through conversations under the rotunda, and wondering with so much hope in your heart if this person will be your person forever. 

Discussing the first midterms of the season, crying over the lowest score you’ve probably ever received in your life, and then ultimately cozying up on the cobbled floor with some of your friends that are slowly becoming your favorite people. 

On Halloween, the best hiding spot to watch the parade of happiness is from the rotunda, a panoramic view of large masses dressed as ghouls and sexy clowns prancing about with joy thrumming through their veins. Your back pressed against the statue of John Howard Van Amringe, imaginary binoculars in your hands as your shoulder is pressed against your friend, both of you satiated from the contagion of joviality in the air, carried by honey sweet laughter. Beaming, you pray for the friends who are dressed for a party rather than a cold autumn night. What the hell, long live Halloween!

And eventually, as College Walk grows more and more sprinkled with Christmas lights, you once again sit under Amringe, the chilly wind biting you from your nose to your toes, and you are warm.

You are warm, because like so many others that have come before you, you have grown under this rotunda. You have changed in the small amount of time you’ve been here, and you are proud. Because soon, you will have met this rotunda as a scared freshman, but say goodbye to it as a Columbia graduate.

John Jay Hall View via Bwog Archives