There are so many senior handprints decorating the halls of Uni. Sometimes, I just spend a free period scanning the walls, finding interesting and hidden ones. There are many beautiful handprints, especially among last year's graduating class. There are cute handprints, like the penguin and pikachu holding hands/paws/flippers near the senior alcove. There's a hidden pair on the ceiling of the little niche that leads to the girl's restroom on the first floor spelling 'Illuminati confirmed.'
One day, I noticed a big, bright red handprint near the north door. I'd seen it before, but it never really registered in my mind. I stared at it for a while. When I squinted, I could barely make out a handprint shape. Seems like that senior stuck his hand in a bucket of paint, slapped his paint-covered hand on the wall, and smeared it around. Since it was such a vivid red, with extra streaks on the outside of the 'handprint,' it almost looked like someone had recently bashed their head into the wall, then dipped their finger into their blood, wrote their name, and drew a smiley face.
(That was a little odd. Sorry.)
I wondered why this senior decided to make his handprint like that, in comparison to several of his buddies' handprints nearby, which were relatively neat and nice. Was he feeling lazy? Or did he deliberately make this his legacy? This senior's handprint left so much hidden information about him, forever memorialized in paint (well, forever until the paint chips off). In fact, each handprint tells a different story about their person. Several might say, "my owner likes art and making a big effort." Others say, "my owner did this to get it over with." Furthermore, most people wrote their names next to their handprint, which can also tell us much about their person. Several beautiful cursive names say, "my owner is neat." Some less elegantly written names say, "my owner's mind moves faster than their hands."
But who knows, perhaps that person with beautiful script and artistic handprint had the messiest locker in their class. Only if you knew them, would you understand the hidden clues they left. We're surrounded by these mysterious handprints everyday, so we don't think too much about them. But real people left these legacies behind, people that could be barely younger than your older sibling or years older than you parents. Chew on that for a little bit.
Wow...This was really thoughtful. Sometimes I stare at the hand prints, especially the ones in the lounge. The hand prints really do reflect the person and their class in my opinion. I wonder, "How do they know what to do for their hand print?" I have no idea what I will do and I'm worried that I still won't know next year... but I'll worry about that when the time comes. That "odd" description was HILARIOUS!!! I literally died of laughter for thirty seconds. Even though it was an odd description, it helped me picture the hand print. I actually want to go look for it. Great post :)
ReplyDeleteThis is really cool and I liked how you used the handprints to try to read what their owner was like back when they left their mark. I do also think your point about how you can never really know the person behind the handprint on the wall is a good one. It adds a nice level of mystery and also nostalgia and melancholy that time progresses. All of those hands were students once and they walked the same halls as us and now all that we have to remember them is some paint on a wall.
ReplyDeleteI rememeber looking at my brother's hand print of a Nigerian flag in the halls. I still don't know what mine is going to be or what it will mean, but I hope to know that by senior year. I feel as though a hand print should have some type of deeper meaning, but sill represent the person. This was a nice blogpost (and I've seen the penguin and pikachu one)!
ReplyDeleteGreat post. Handprints are such an integral part of Uni and it's cool how, like you said, it's a part of the legacy we leave behind. Crazy that it's my year to leave a hand print. I haven't started thinking what I want to do but I'm super excited.
ReplyDeleteSeeing people who have graduated twenty or even thirty years ago come into the lounge and point out their handprints to a friend or family member really drives home how special of a tradition it is. Everyone that passes through Uni's halls leaves a legacy, and I think the handprints are a way of memorializing your five years here. Looking at the walls its incredible to see how creative people are in using that medium to express themselves (hence the Palestinian flag, or a series or code, or even the penguin).
ReplyDeleteThis is a really cool post. It's strange to look at those handprints and realize that real people just like us drew them. Each one is different and I sometimes try to imagine why each person chose that design to memorialize themself, but I'm never sure exactly what it must have meant. It's weird to get older and see more and more of the handprints belong to people you actually know, too.
ReplyDelete