The Rhetoric Around Me

I'm starting to see everything in my life as a piece of rhetoric.  When we were told in the beginning of the year that we would eventually see everything as a rhetorical artifact, I was skeptical.  I thought, "there is no way that I will ever learn how to pick stuff like that out," but here I am, sitting in the Atherton lobby, identifying the rhetoric behind everything.  Walk into any other hall on campus, and what do you see in the lobby?  Surely it is not as nice as the Atherton lobby.  I'm sitting on a couch that is nicer than the one I have in my home, in an open and well lit space.  The walls are painted a soft, calming blue, and "Schreyer Honors College" is painted in gold along the interesting curved architecture.  The first time I walked in here with my family, my mom said, "holy crap, Carol! this is certainly an upgrade from the house, huh?"  I love my house, but she was right.  The Atherton lobby gives its visitors the impression that this hall is all about high class.  Why though?  Why the Atherton lobby?  Simmons is part of the honors college as well, and it is not nearly as impressive.  Atherton houses the offices of the honors college, so it must look fancy, or at least the lobby needs to look fancy.  Take a step inside one of the doors leading to the dorm rooms, and it is like you are a completely different building.  Instead of being inside a classy hotel, you are back in a college dorm.  If only important people here on honors college business had to come through the dorm hallways, then maybe our dorms would be just as impressive.