The above quote is from Alan (Class of 1996). Read the full memory below:

I wrote a poem while I was in Freshman at Brown called “Rock”:

Slowly into the room of empty space
Softly I hear the place of the lonely souls
It’s solitude which I feel
It’s isolation that I sense
Everyone is squeezed in this space
Squeezed into their own innerspace

The space where each of them belongs to
The expanse where they have been longing for
It’s perhaps their spiritual home
A sector one can retreat to
Not to hide away from reality
Only to get away from the hypocrisy of the world
The illusions of the friendly spirits
The malice behind all the smiling faces
Reality is no longer real
It’s only a mirage,
A deception filled up with enmity
It’s a fallacy,
A delusion where everyone is lost in the name of materialism
They don’t seem to know
They don’t seem to think
The meaning of life is only a simple thing
Is that one should love for himself,
Not for money, but quietly, forcefully and utterly.

Providence, USA
Oct 1993

Another incident I would like to share is that I was studying/reading lying on the comfortable couchchair on the basement of the Rock. It was so comfortable that I fell asleep and woke up at 3:30 a.m. (the door was locked at 2 a.m.). I ended up spending the night here.