At the beginning of the year, though I was not very excited to live in McCauley, I was looking forward to the fact that I had the dining hall right next door and the Laker a short walk away as well.

I enjoyed the Laker whenever I dined there, but there was one little issue.

I quickly learned that the Laker only stayed open until 4:30 in the afternoon.

This meant that, in the afternoons at least, I had to walk all the way to Ryan whenever I wanted a snack.

The good news is that since Mercyhurst is a bit small, the walk was never anything more than a minor inconvenience.

But in the back of my mind, I kept thinking about how it would be nice to be able to make the short walk to the Laker instead.

As you can imagine, the closing of the Laker came as a surprise, but it didn’t crush me.

When I heard they were putting a pub into the Student Union, I assumed that it would be taking up the entire bottom floor of the place.

Seeing as no one told me otherwise, I carried this assumption up to the very moment of actually walking into the building.

I was a bit shocked when I saw that this was not the case.

Immediately I got excited by the idea of not having to walk across campus for a bag of Hot Cheetos.

So I took a mental note of the Laker’s re-opening, and the next time I needed something to drink, I went to the Laker.

To my disappointment, I discovered that the hours were the same.

This was quite disappointing for me.

It confused me that Mercyhurst went through all the effort to renovate the Laker, yet they still only have it open until 4:30 in the afternoon.

On the other hand, I am very excited to try the new coffee station.

As someone who considers themselves an aspiring connoisseur of coffee and tea, I am very excited at the idea of having other options than the Ryan dining hall or the Starbucks in the bookstore.

I firmly believe that there is nothing like a good cup of coffee in the morning.

Sadly, however, sometimes the coffee at the dining hall leaves something to be desired.

Could this new coffee station in the Laker possibly fill that gap for me?

Who’s to say? I will have to try it and see.

All things taken into account, I’m very excited to see the Laker reopening.

My only hope is that, some time in the future, they change their hours of operation so that they can serve people later.

I understand that they likely need the staff to work the Roost, but it’s still disappointing.

While the walk to Ryan is not far, it is inconvenient.

I hope that the freshmen of the future can be spared the minor inconvenience of the daily snack walk to Ryan Hall.

I am also glad that I will get the opportunity to go and experience the new Laker and pub.

The renovations appear to be very nice, I believe that they really give the place a new air.

I would have to say that, more than anything else, I am extraordinarily happy that they did not use the entire bottom floor for the Roost.

It would’ve been bad to lose the Laker entirely.