![\"](\"https:\/\/shadybucket.s3.amazonaws.com\/images\/The_University_of_Chicago_6.width-1280.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The Joesph Regenstein Library<\/p>\n
There are but few moments in life that will truly bring joy to the tortured human soul. Among them are winning a Nobel Peace Prize, curing cancer, or eating the last of your roommate\u2019s ice cream and blaming it on his boyfriend. Although these moments are rare, they allow us a small glimpse of true happiness in the face of our bleak realities.<\/p>\n
But without sadness, we would not have pleasure. Imagine leaving the Reg at 5:37 pm, Thursday of Finals Week. You\u2019ve turned in your last paper three and a half hours before the deadline. The air is unseasonably warm and you have two hours of daylight still ahead of you. This is the happiest you will ever be. After this moment is over, nothing will ever again carry you away from the perpetual dismal malaise so completely. Here are five moments that will come close, but never surpass, the unadulterated jubilance of leaving the Reg early.<\/p>\n
1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The birth of your first child. You will cradle little Rebecca in your arms after undergoing the ancient pains of childbirth, connecting you to every creature that has ever been born and is yet to be birthed. You\u2019ll name her after your own mother in the hope that she will be as strong and beautiful a woman as her. She will grasp your finger in her tiny, tiny hand and you will feel at peace\u2014but not as at peace as you did when you left the Reg early that one afternoon.<\/p>\n
2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Driving your favorite car on the Autobahn. You\u2019ll run into a drunk Russian oligarch in a small German bar. He\u2019ll give you the keys to his Bugatti and tell you to go wild in his broken English. You\u2019ll go fast, so so fast. But it won\u2019t be better than stepping out of that concrete misery hole as a college student.<\/p>\n
3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Winning $12 on a scratch-off lottery ticket. Stopping by the convenience store on a whim to buy a chocolate rose for your beloved, you\u2019ll decide to purchase a $2 ticket. After celebrating your good luck with the clerk, you\u2019ll drop your winnings in the \u201cLeave a Penny, Take a Penny\u201d container for the next person. You\u2019ll feel happy, but the shadow of what you once had will tinge the moment with a faint melancholy.<\/p>\n
4.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Catching a foul ball at the Cubs 2092 World Series. The Cubs will make it back to the World Series for the first time since 2016. Dying of cancer at almost 100, you\u2019ll attend your last game surrounded by your family. The Cubs will be up 2 runs in Game Seven, bottom of the ninth. You\u2019ll see Kris Bryant\u2019s great, great-grandchild sling a foul ball your way. You\u2019ll reach out and catch it. Then, you\u2019ll feel complete. Almost as complete as you leaving the Reg early in 2018.<\/p>\n
5.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Reuniting with your first love at your 55th<\/sup> high school reunion and recarving your initials in that old wooden bench by the football stadium. You\u2019ll see them across the gym of your old high school. They\u2019ll be just as beautiful as the day you took them to prom in 2015, if not more so. Your spouse will have passed peacefully three years before, and after taking time to grieve and heal, you will be ready to find love again. Your high school sweetheart will be unmarried, too, and you will reminiscence about the first time you said \u201cI love you\u201d under the bleachers while Thad Benson scored the winning touchdown at homecoming. You\u2019ll say, \u201cLet\u2019s go back to that field, one last time,\u201d and they\u2019ll agree before admitting you still give them butterflies. For the first time in fifty-five years, you two will kiss, passionately, deeply, like high schoolers who have yet to experience the true miseries of life. They\u2019ll pull out the pocket knife you gave them at graduation and say, \u201cI\u2019ve held on to this. I guess I didn\u2019t know how to say goodbye.\u201d You\u2019ll carve your initials into the bench you\u2019re sitting on and kiss again. For a moment you will think this is the happiest you\u2019ve ever been. You are wrong.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Breck Radulovic April 20, 2018 The Joesph Regenstein Library There are but few moments in life that will truly bring joy to the tortured human soul. Among them are winning a Nobel Peace Prize, curing cancer, or eating the last of your roommate\u2019s ice cream and blaming it on his boyfriend. Although these moments are rare, they allow us a small glimpse of true happiness in the face of our bleak realities. But without sadness, we would not have pleasure. Imagine leaving the Reg at 5:37 pm, Thursday of Finals Week. You\u2019ve turned in your last paper three and a half hours before the deadline. The air is unseasonably warm and you have two hours of daylight still ahead of you. This is the happiest you will ever be. After this moment is over, nothing will ever again carry you away from the perpetual dismal malaise so completely. Here are five moments that will come close, but never surpass, the unadulterated jubilance of leaving the Reg early. 1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The birth of your first child. You will cradle little Rebecca in your arms after undergoing the ancient pains of childbirth, connecting you to every creature that has ever been born and is yet to be birthed. You\u2019ll name her after your own mother in the hope that she will be as strong and beautiful a woman as her. She will grasp your finger in her tiny, tiny hand and you will feel at peace\u2014but not as at peace as you did when you left the Reg early that one afternoon. 2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Driving your favorite car on the Autobahn. You\u2019ll run into a drunk Russian oligarch in a small German bar. He\u2019ll give you the keys to his Bugatti and tell you to go wild in his broken English. You\u2019ll go fast, so so fast. But it won\u2019t be better than stepping out of that concrete misery hole as a college student. 3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Winning $12 on a scratch-off lottery ticket. Stopping by the convenience store on a whim to buy a chocolate rose for your beloved, you\u2019ll decide to purchase a $2 ticket. After celebrating your good luck with the clerk, you\u2019ll drop your winnings in the \u201cLeave a Penny, Take a Penny\u201d container for the next person. You\u2019ll feel happy, but the shadow of what you once had will tinge the moment with a faint melancholy. 4.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Catching a foul ball at the Cubs 2092 World Series. The Cubs will make it back to the World Series for the first time since 2016. Dying of cancer at almost 100, you\u2019ll attend your last game surrounded by your family. The Cubs will be up 2 runs in Game Seven, bottom of the ninth. You\u2019ll see Kris Bryant\u2019s great, great-grandchild sling a foul ball your way. You\u2019ll reach out and catch it. Then, you\u2019ll feel complete. Almost as complete as you leaving the Reg early in 2018. 5.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Reuniting with your first love at your 55th high school reunion and recarving your initials in that old wooden bench by the football stadium. You\u2019ll see them across the gym of your old high school. They\u2019ll be just as beautiful as the day you took them to prom in 2015, if not more so. Your spouse will have passed peacefully three years before, and after taking time to grieve and heal, you will be ready to find love again. Your high school sweetheart will be unmarried, too, and you will reminiscence about the first time you said \u201cI love you\u201d under the bleachers while Thad Benson scored the winning touchdown at homecoming. You\u2019ll say, \u201cLet\u2019s go back to that field, one last time,\u201d and they\u2019ll agree before admitting you still give them butterflies. For the first time in fifty-five years, you two will kiss, passionately, deeply, like high schoolers who have yet to experience the true miseries of life. They\u2019ll pull out the pocket knife you gave them at graduation and say, \u201cI\u2019ve held on to this. I guess I didn\u2019t know how to say goodbye.\u201d You\u2019ll carve your initials into the bench you\u2019re sitting on and kiss again. For a moment you will think this is the happiest you\u2019ve ever been. You are wrong.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-campus-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1492"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1492\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2525,"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1492\/revisions\/2525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}