With the coming year, there are always new changes that come upon Ralston Valley.  Most of them seem to be good decisions.  There are quotes that go up on the wall, markings from the graduating class appear all over the school campus, and new gadgets appear in the computer labs.

Although it isn’t breaking news, I’ve come to notice the new bar seating that has taken root in the library.  I’ve welcomed most of the change that happens at this school, yet recently I have come to despise the new venue.

It is one thing to put bar seating in the cafeteria, but it is a whole other can of worms for it to appear in a library.  At first I thought this would be a good idea.  More seating so that people aren’t fighting for spots during I.C.E and off blocks.

But what happened instead is in fact the opposite of what a library is supposed to sound like.  Instead I find that I’m surrounded by a herd of elephants any time I go into the library any more.

In fact my favorite part of this brilliant idea is that the librarians try to keep it quiet by telling talkative kids to go to the bar seating, but it’s still like listening to a gaggle of geese.  The noise proceeds to encase the entire library, no matter how hard the librarians try.

To make matters even funnier is the TV’s that now hang above the bar seating as well.  Any day now I expect for them to switch on and the entire place will turn into a sports bar, with a library theme.

To hide from the deafening rumble of the ‘new library’, I’m forced to retreat to the counseling office, which now fills up faster than before with kids seeking refuge from the turbulence that has become the new, standard library of Ralston Valley.