Collegiate Times

It feels like just yesterday that everyone packed their bags, waved good-bye to the sunny hills of Blacksburg and moved out into the real world where internships give an excuse for not getting a real job, jobs are sought that pay the highest and require the least amount of effort and dinner with the folks becomes routine again.

Yet with a blink of an eye, fall semester returns us to where we left off in the spring with hopes that a new semester and a long summer vacation will yield a slightly more mature view on college life. Yet no matter how life-altering summer may have been, the odd but forceful wind that blows in from the mountains surrounding us seems to blow us right into a mayhem of madness: madness for earlier happier hours, longer bar tabs and late night ventures. And while summer may have helped us mature for a time being, the return reminds us that with each year faced, the closer we really are to entering the ?real world.?

With this ?real world? facing us, we return to college life with a vengeance in order to soak in as much as we can of the good times we will soon leave behind. For freshmen it seems to be light years away, but for seniors the nearness of this event drives us to become as distant as possible from the grim reality of what we will be facing upon the close of the year.

Likewise, the Down Times picks up where it left off . A few writers graduated, a few remain, and with a new outlook for the fall semester. An explosion of new elements will be popping up throughout the semester, and more articles will be featuring students and local talent. We hope you?ll enjoy the first issue and look forward to more.