Bring Back the Couches!!

I just had a really great night. I saw the open dress of a really funny play while sitting with theater friends. I then went to the birthday celebration of one of my best friends. It was fantastic. I really like spending time with these people.

I usually get to do so more often.

Until this school year, our student center has had couches as part of the seating on the ground floor that has a food court. This year, some of our retail food offerings have been in the process of being converted to one single provider with many stations of food. This had converted part of the space into a construction site and changed the dynamic of the entire ground floor. The couches are gone.

Without the couches, my group of friends (yes, theater friends) do not have a place to casually congregate. None of the couch regulars even go to the student center any more (I've polled them) because there is no place to sit, no way to gather. I never see them except at specific events, and I don't know what's going on in their lives. This has never been a question before. It shouldn't be special to know what's up with your friends.

We tried the tables at the very beginning of the year, but there are problems. First of all, they're just plain uncomfortable. Tall tables. Second of all, you have to choose a table to sit at. This is particularly difficult when you have friends at multiple tables and you have to choose who you want to spend time with at that moment. In previous years, tables indicated that you were in a meeting or doing serious homework, and now I can't tell. With all of these factors, there's just no reason to go.

Without incentive to go to a common space, I also haven't met any new students or new members of the theater community. When they figure out where to go to be around people, they become part of the group much faster, and since there's now no way for this to happen, I just don't know anyone and it makes me sad. I remember discovering the couches in my freshman year and making friends there, and now that just can't happen. 

Spending a few hours in the company of people I expect to see regularly but don't actually made me really miss seeing them regularly. I want to make this work, but the thing about running into each other in a neutral space without making plans is that it takes the pressure off the interaction. When you make plans, there's an expectation of doing something or having some sort of serious conversation, but all I want to do is chat about nothing and just know that they're alive and well (or not as the case may be).

I miss my friends. I miss the social life that these couches fostered. I just want to be able to run into these awesome people again. I never thought that a piece of furniture could have such an impact on a community.

Today is awesome because I got to be with awesome friends whose company makes me happy.