Bring on Saturdays

By: Steve Maloney – Columnist, Senior

I did a brief study this past Saturday on the campus at UD to determine if there’s a correlation between outdoor temperature and community gatherings.

It turns out, as you might have expected, as the temperature increases outdoors, so do the community levels at UD. Now you might ask, “Steve, how could you possibly quantify community when it is such an abstract concept?”

Well, if you compare a cold Saturday here to what it was like last Saturday, you’ll notice an increase in the sheer magnitude of people socializing while building on friendships that already exist. The smiles per capita are exponentially greater when mercury rises in a thermometer.

And this goes far beyond day drinking and loud music. For instance, I met people from my hometown because I was outside chatting it up. If it was a cold day, I most likely would’ve been indoors watching television with my close-knit group of buds.

Sure, after a few libations you are more inclined to yuck it up with your fellow Flyers. However, the camaraderie is at an all-time high when you’re outside in your jersey and shorts with music blasting. Everyone’s in a great mood, and you can’t help but appreciate that you go to this school with great people.

So, whether you were grilling out in your backyard, bopping around the campus, or simply inviting many a passerby onto your porch, the sense and willingness to contribute to UD’s community can largely be attributed to the beautiful weather.

Expanding your network is a wonderful thing, so I hope most of you took advantage of the weather to do so. This campus is one of the best out there, but there are many times when weather puts a damper on its abilities to showcase its greatness. Saturday was just yet another reminder of why UD is such an ideal place for building and maintaining relationships with people who share a common bond.

Thanks to Punxsutawney Phil, we’re still stuck in winter for a couple more weeks, so bundle up for temperatures in the mid-thirties, but never forget the great times we shared this past weekend because it was the perfect taste of what’s to come in about a month.

Until next time, keep Saturday-ing your hearts out.