If I was a cow today, I would be one of these cows.

Today I wrote my last exam, well really it was my first and last exam as I am only taking one class right now, but that is besides the point. What I really want to talk about is cattle. It has always struck me while standing in front of the Dalplex with 200 of my peers waiting anxiously for the doors to open so we can file into our neatly arranged seats, how similar we are to cattle being led to slaughter. Each one of us makes our way up the walk way, pressed shoulder to shoulder while shuffling our feet, and then single file, we pass through the revolving doors with the hiss of escaping air. Then the sensation of ears popping from the pressure inside the field house where we each find a stall for the next three hours of our lives. Our herder is not a cowboy with his whip, but instead we are forced in by the cold December air, and 0ur own personal quest for knowledge. We are herded in by the possibility that we might find the answer to what we are going to do with the rest of our lives. However our slaughter differs from the cattle, it is not a bullet to the head, but a civil academic affair involving a pen and paper. All that stands between us and the supermarket shelf is the "knowledge" that we were able to cram into our heads while staying awake on coffee the night before. But what gets me every time I find myself waiting to file into the field house is that unlike cattle we made the choice to be standing in that herd and filing up that walk way. Of course, most of the year I would not be comparing myself to a cow, but that is what a couple of sleepless weeks at the end of term will do to a person.