John L.
Yelp
"What is it that binds us to this place as to no other?
It is not the well,
or the bell,
or the stone walls,
or the crisp October nights,
or the memory of dogwoods blooming,
our love for this place is based on the fact that it is, as it was meant to be, the university of the people." - Charles Kuralt, 1993 bicentennial address
This is a review 7 years in the making. A review based on a lot of experience with all aspects of the Carolina life. If you're here long enough, you get a sense of the different sides of Carolina. The good (the people, the campus), the less good (the desire to turn campus bookstores into Barnes & Noble/Starbucks), and the in-between (Hi Gary!). The most important part is that this is a university of the people: a wide variety of different people, coming in with varied experiences who work to better the world in a wide variety of ways. Whether they do that in classrooms, hospital operating rooms, laboratories, athletic fields, or in The Pit, they do so because they love this place, this magical, crazy place.
You meet a lot of different people in this place: the writers, the scientists, the activists, the gladiators, the people who work day to day to make sure this is the best place it can be, they are all here. Every one makes Carolina what Carolina is.
In these halls, you see the best that humanity can offer: answers to questions about the workings of the brain, questions about whether or not our criminal justice system truly punishes the "worst of the worst", whether we can find ways to cure the cruelest of diseases, it's all here. People working on things that truly matter in day to day life.
So now I leave this place, even if this place does not leave me. It gave me both the tangible (a doctorate, somehow) and the less tangible (friendships, happiness, and other great things).
In summary, there are probably puppies in The Pit. You should pet them, especially if they are adoptable. If they are not adoptable, ask first before petting. That's the Carolina Way.