Play around

Back in elementary school, when all we had were 50 minutes to make recess count, we did everything our little hearts desired. There were soccer players and jump-ropers, kids who colored and others who savored a peanut butter and jelly sandwich by the monkey bars. There were conversations about boys, somebody's birthday party and the upcoming field trip to the zoo. Until the teacher called us back to class or put an end to a roughneck game of dodgeball, everything we did counted as play.

Today, the line between work and play is much hazier. There's no teacher out there telling us right from wrong, there's not a bell announcing recess or social studies-we're the ones who separate work from play and right from wrong. But although we may have successfully revived the preschool art of napping, the art of recognizing "play" on this campus has been sadly neglected.

We want to suggest that students should be the ones to redefine what the "play" is in "work hard, play hard," and that all it might take is a trip down memory lane to remember just how expansive the playground might be. From section parties to house parties, chess tournaments to basketball tournaments, art exhibits to the music on your iPod, everything counts as play.

Yet for some reason, when we begin to describe what it actually means to socialize on this campus, all the sundry cool things each of us does to entertain ourselves-and the good intentions behind all of it-tend to come third or fourth on the list. After what Nancy Grace, Rolling Stone and frustrated Chronicle editorials say about how we play, we begin to forget standing room only at Inside Joke, Nasher Noir or photographing our best friend in the gardens for a Doc Studies class. We forget our favorite parties and why we loved them.

At the end of the day, "culture" is just about how grown-ups play, and if that's the case, we have to make room on the playground for more than the kind of face-planting, we-regret-it-in-the-morning "hard" living that's being used against us. Perhaps what we really want is to play well; to be both playful and cultured, carefree and responsible, kids without a care and college students who are a lot more savvy to this place we inhabit than the media might have us believe.

We know it's a jungle (gym) out there. But every hour we spend entertaining ourselves and counting it as play is a step toward expanding the playground that, apparently, all eyes are on. In honor of recess, when whatever made you happy was a good way to spend those precious fifty minutes, we think the best way to quell the haters is to relish in the art of play. How we play not only matters for us, but for the Duke tradition of social life that's something we should all be proud of.

Of course, playgrounds don't change overnight. But it can start with a field trip to the Chapel Quad, and declaring recess for yourself, this Friday from noon to five.

Rachel Weeks is a Trinity senior.