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Orientation in Ruston with Shakespeare

I saw gangs of young people coming at me from every direction wearing blue shirts that said “Wear, Live, Think, Dream.” Luckily, they were friendly.

One of the groups helped me to find the bathroom, which I sorely needed following my drive from Sterlington. I was there to attend a student play that was being presented by the Drama Department. I re-entered the plaza and attempted to find a garden tucked behind George T. Madison Hall using directions provided by one of the professors. He hadn’t told me that it also was the tail end of freshman orientation at Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, a college recently ranked No. 21 in the nation by AdvisorOne for providing its graduates with the best returns on their investments (ROI). But then why would he?

I allowed myself to be swept along to the cafeteria for a free dinner of salad, mac and cheese, two kinds of beans (barbecue and vegetarian), and unsweetened ice tea. However, it did occur to me while I was loading up my plate that free lunches or dinners are from a distant past. Spraying myself with bug repellent and without an ID tag hanging around my neck and my voice giving myself away as an intrepid northerner, I choose to eat outside in the heat.

I was hoping that Shakespeare would understand my pretense. After all, I was looking for the Shakespeare Garden where “Rewrite,” a comedy by Patrick Boyd, was being performed. I found it, two characters trying to convince the author not to rewrite their love affair into a death scene. After all love always lives, even in the imagination.