People say summer in Blacksburg is delightful, a sentiment often shared by professors and administrative staff who each summer eagerly anticipate a couple of peaceful months without students. As the semester ends, families seem to appear out of hiding, a semester’s long hibernation to enjoy the town with their kids. Even the local rabbit population, freed from the tyranny of students, seize the opportunity to roam freely, claiming the campus as their own. I’ve seen more rabbits this summer, than I have in my life, revealing a side of campus I didn’t know existed. Places around town are crowd free and there’s no trouble finding parking, a nice change from the academic year normal. The town hosts a weekly or bi-weekly concert series of local artists on one of the lawns downtown and wildflowers and plants exist on almost every corner.
It’s beautiful and a welcome change, but it feels like I’m the only person alive on campus. In the morning, as I walk to work at the architecture library I rarely see another soul. Those I do see are construction workers working on one of the new ROTC dorms, but they exist behind a chain link fence, a boundary of separation. They may as well belong to a different world. Occasionally, while I’m running an errand for the architecture library I’ll see a tour group of prospective students, “People! I’m not alone”, I’ll think, while I imagine the tour guide narrating my existence, like David Attenborough narrating a lonesome penguin that has found itself away from the rest of the group.
Summer has been a whirlwind of activity, although not necessarily filled with leisurely pursuits or vacation fun. With the exception of Juneteenth and the Fourth of July, I have not had a day off. On Monday to Friday mornings from 10am to 12pm I’m working in the architecture library. From 1pm-5pm, four days a week I have studio. On the weekends, Saturday and Sunday, from 1pm to 8:30pm, I lifeguard at private pool in town. Working at the library has been great, the people working there are fantastic so it’s been very enjoyable, plus the two hours I’m there goes by incredibly quickly. I don’t know what it is about libraries, but they always have the kindest people working at them. I’ve never had a bad experience at one and the workers are always so helpful. Another great thing is being amongst all the architecture books. Whether checking in books people have returned, or getting books people have placed on hold, I’m constantly surrounded by inspiration and getting introduced to books I didn’t know existed.
Lifeguarding, unfortunately has been less fun. My ideas of what it would be like came from eight years of working as a lifeguard at the ocean. However, it has turned out quite different. As an assistant manager, I’m fortunate to be spared some of the more mundane tasks that the other lifeguards face. Instead, I believe in leading by example and sharing the workload with my teams. However, the absence of a dedicated cleaning crew means that in addition to lifeguarding, the guards must also double as a janitorial staff, constantly performing pool upkeep tasks while on duty. The boss/manager who is always present, has little tolerance for moments of rest. The list of tasks is extensive, ranging from cleaning bathrooms at closing shift, taking out the trash and recycling and also cleaning and scrubbing the bins, cleaning and scraping the grill, changing the toilet paper rolls, unclogging the toilets, sweeping the pavilion, and anything else you can imagine that constitutes general upkeep. All of this and the lifeguards are only paid 50 cents more than minimum wage at $12.50 an hour. I make $2 more as an assistant manager and that’s only $2 more than I was making 10 years ago! As a far as hourly wage positions a teenager can have and considering the level of responsibility, lifeguarding should pay more than an hourly wage elsewhere. They should increase membership fees to pay their lifeguards better.
Studio has been intense. Fitting a semester’s worth of a project in half the time is almost an impossible task. Additionally, the summer studio known as integrative studio, delves deeper into various aspects such as HVAC and code compliance. The project we are working on along with other integrative studio projects (fourth year undergrad has one) is used by the NAAB (National Architecture Accreditation Board) for the schools accreditation. We have to adhere to a highly specific book template and submit by 5:00pm on August 11th. I’ll be relieved when it’s over, but my upcoming assistantship that starts on the 10th leaves little room for respite.