There comes a point in everyone’s life where you need to say enough is enough. While for some, that might be because of an annoyingly strict professor or an overbearing parent, for me, it is none of those things. For me, it is walking. Specifically, walking up hills. I think everyone can agree that walking uphill is, in no way, their favorite pastime. If it is, all power to you, maybe try cross country.
There are multiple ways into campus, but the two most popular routes into campus are through the main gates (which you take from going into town) and up the stairs from the parking lots (which you take if you are commuting by ferry or train from NYC). Either way, it is going to make you regret not hitting the treadmill. Assuming you are taking the stairs onto campus, you have already walked about 15 minutes from the ferry or the PATH train. This walk actually isn’t so bad as it is by the hudson and actually pretty calm. This all gets ruined however by the end when you need to hike up around 5 flights of stairs. In the unfortunate event that you live farther up the hill at Castle Point or Humphreys or some of the other dorms to the west, there is only more hill waiting for you after the stairs. Imagine, after a tiring night out in the city, you and your friends are all puckered out and now have to walk up these stairs and the hill. Not very enticing. In the grand scheme of things, however, these stairs aren’t too bad compared to the other options to get into campus.
I have a bone to pick with the steep hill leading to the main gates. The placement and location of the hill make it so that if you ever want to get food from Washington Street, you are forced to walk down the hill, get the food, and then walk back up the hill, and the hill doesn’t stop once you get up to the gate. The hill continues into the campus all the way up until essentially the admissions office. That isn’t even the worst part from what I have heard from upperclassmen. When you are buying food, you normally are only returning to campus with something light, maybe a Shake Shack hamburger, or a gigantic $5 slice of pizza. However, it becomes even worse when you are going grocery shopping and have to haul all those heavy bags back up the hill to your dormitory. As a self-appointed foodie, the hill is a very big deterrent when it comes to getting food. Normally the answer to whether I want to go out and get food is an ecstatic “Hell yeah”. However, ever since the existence of The Hill, the question isn’t “should I get food” it’s, “do I want to walk that hill today”. That hill is the savior of my bank account and the bane of my stomach.
As someone who comes from the hilly lands of Little Neck, hills are nothing new to me. I have been walking up hills since the ye olde days of elementary school. However, at a certain point, you just get tired of walking up hills. There comes a point where enough is enough. I have had enough of these hills, and at some point, I am sure you will too. Happy hiking people.
