marginalia

marginalia

\mahr-juh-NEY-lee-uh\ , noun;

1.Notes in the margin of a book, manuscript, or letter.

 

One of my favorite parts about college was the realization that, for the first time in my life, I could write in the text books. I felt a sick kind of excitement. My school career up to that point consisted of veiled threats of the unknown if I did not have my text book covered promptly by a brown paper bag. Looking back on it I'm not sure how impenetrable a fortress a  brown paper bag was expected to be, but I covered my books dutifully and was sure to avoid marking the book in any way. 

After all those years of Catholic grade school pen oppression I was ready to take the plunge. The gravity of the situation was not lost on me. I wasn't just writing some notes in the margin, I was communicating with someone in the future! I was, in a sense, a time traveler.

It took everything inside me not to write "PENIS PENIS PENIS" across every page. Although I may have high lighted it a few times when it showed up in the book.