U Musings: Cox Science Building resembles hedge maze

Tarey / Pixabay

Have you ever been trapped in a huge hedge maze with walls so high, you can’t hope to peek over the edge and cheat your way out of them? I haven’t. I imagine that it’s great fun at first, until a sinking feeling of dread takes over, making you wonder if you’ll ever find the end of the maze or die inside. Mazes are only fun when you can see them from the top down, giving you the ability to trace and retrace your path with relative ease.

The Cox Science Building is a classic example of a hedge maze. It looks really fun and cool from the outside, and when you’re walking inside everything is OK for a few minutes until you turn left around the next corner and realize you’ve passed that door before. Or maybe you haven’t? Soon you’re lost, unable to leave Cox and unable to find your class.

Now, this assessment of Cox may be unfair of me. After all, I’ve yet to have a class there. The only time I’ve been in Cox was with some friends who study biomedical engineering, and the only time I hear about Cox is when I talk to friends who study STEM majors.

However, whenever I do go into Cox, it’s a nightmare. I don’t know where I’m going, so I’m following my friends who have classes there every week, friends who start to debate which way they’re supposed to go to get to their usual classroom. It’s one of the strangest and funniest things I’ve ever witnessed at this university, yet it’s also troubling. Who would’ve thought one building could be so confusing?

I’m not trying to say there’s something wrong with the Cox Science Building – it’s very beautiful and accommodating for most, if not all, science classes and labs. I’m just saying, maybe someone should invest in some signs for that building so people walking around inside can find their way out of the hedge maze when they get lost. Remember, it’s only fun if you can get through the maze, not if you get trapped inside.