Bonaventure touts itself as a beautiful university nestled in the Enchanted Mountains, and the natural beauty of the area is not fully appreciated when viewed through a car window.
One of the most common complaints among students at St. Bonaventure every semester is a lack of parking spaces and security’s seeming eagerness to give out parking tickets. Students love to complain about this to no avail, and consistently ignore a simple yet elegant solution to the problem: walking.
The average student sees very little of Bonaventure’s campus in his or her day-to-day activities, especially when he or she travel by car. This can be changed by walking campus, be it from your townhouse to class, or going for a walk on the trail by the river.
Bonaventure is blessed with the presence of the Allegheny River Valley Trails, a system of well-maintained pathways that allow for quick, comfortable travel to and from each side of campus. Combined with the relative small size of the campus, travel from one end to another should take no one longer than fifteen minutes, walking at a casual gait.
Considering the small size of campus, driving to and from is wasteful when a vehicle is not of the utmost necessity. Driving from the townhouses to the Plassmann parking lots does nothing more than waste gas (along with increasing your carbon footprint), while saving five to ten minutes, which often is nothing more than extra time in bed.
Not only is it a minor adjustment to a pre-class routine to leave a few minutes early, but the benefits from it greatly outweigh the minor inconvenience. A relaxing walk to class allows one to clear his or her head and is a great way to relieve the stress that comes with the regular routine of schoolwork. There are also the added holistic benefits of a walk, from the fresh air to the minor burning of calories.
When students spend every day going to and fro in a vehicle, they miss some of the school’s most magical natural sights. The river trail is filled with adorably skittish chipmunks whose attempts at fleeing a human being are a delight to witness. At night, it is not uncommon to see the beautifully haunting sight of herds of deer wandering the open field on the east side of campus as an eerie fog descends.
Bonaventure students tend not to appreciate the presence of the river trail, especially in comparison to the citizens of the surrounding communities who can so often be seen enjoying it. It is a great blessing for the school to have such a well maintained trail so readily available, but Bonaventure students are seldom seen on it.
Bonaventure claims its natural beauty as a strategic advantage over other universities, but to many, this trait of the school is ignored. Yet, students tend to be so wrapped up in their day-to-day routine that the beauty goes unnoticed. All it takes to truly appreciate Bonaventure is a little time out of each day spent walking through its beautiful expanse.
Corey Krajewski is a Staff Writer for the Bona Venture. His email is
krajewcj11@bonaventure.edu
