Night of the Last Lion

Over the course of many months, we have traveled all across campus to see the many buildings, statues, and other areas in the moonlight.  Now, after thousands of steps, a couple really cold nights, and seeing countless bunnies just hanging out, I have exhausted all of my ideas for places to visit, except for one.  The final location in our journey around campus, is a place that lots of people visit at the end of their Penn State career, the Nittany Lion Shrine.

The Nittany Lion Shrine is a statue of, well, the Nittany Lion.  It is on the far corner of campus beside Rec Hall.  The statue depicts a Nittany Lion crouching on the edge of a rock.  The lion looks ready to pounce and its eyes look off in the direction of Rec hall.  The statue is surrounded by a half-circle of rocks and has stone steps that lead up to towards it.  At night, the statue is also bathed in a cobalt blue light from behind.  However, this statue is not usually visited during the night.

Most people visit the Lion Shrine during the day, more specifically, during one of their last days of college.  We have all seen the pictures of graduating seniors getting pictures taken at the Lion Shrine, and on the lion's back, to commemorate their achievement.  It is for this reason that the statue is symbolic of graduation at our campus.  The statue symbolizes the idea that you have achieved your goals, of graduating, and are now worthy to sit upon the lion's back.  Sitting on the lion's back at this time of a person's life is symbolic of conquering over and taming the struggles that existed throughout college.  This is why people are drawn to the Lion Shrine, to show that they have accomplished their goals are ready to move onto the next part of their lives.  However, the Lion Shrine is not only symbolic of graduating.

Even though most people visit the Lion Shrine at the end of their college career, the Lion Shrine has been watching over everyone from nearly the beginning.  As I said earlier, the gaze of the Lion falls onto Rec Hall.  When I first came to college, one of the first, non-mandatory, events that I went to was an assembly where we were taught all the Penn State cheers in Rec Hall.  This means from the very moment that we are becoming immersed in the Penn State community; the Nittany Lion Shrine is already looking over us to see what we will accomplish in the future.

In a single post, we have look at the beginning of a person's time at Penn State and at the end.  Sadly, this is also the end of this blog.  Over the past months we have gone on a journey to see the many different places in a different light.  However, now it is time to move on, like the graduating seniors.  That is the reason that the Nittany Lion Shrine was a necessary way to bring this exploration to a close.  So next time you come think about the Lion Shrine, remember the watchful eyes of the Lion, and how they see the world in a completely different way.