Wherever you go, your friends are probably there, just like they were yesterday and the day before. For some reason Lowell students seem confined to familiar environments, unwilling to explore new places and situations. It's as if we all have some homing device that binds us back to the same 200 square feet at the same times every single day.

With a shortage of common space on such an overfull campus, students find all sorts of places to sit, eat and catch up with each other. We've colonized just about all the free space on campus. From the T's and outdoor basketball courts to the math wing, from the science wing to the flagpole: Dozens of mini-cultures are all over the place.

The courtyard, the middle realm, which is almost always full of people, is usually divided by table or group of tables. The freshmen, the seniors, the jocks: Each group has its spot. I can remember quite a bit of drama that arose from some group stealing another group's table. These territorial boundaries do not mean that these groups don't mix, however. Quite the opposite. Most courtyard dwellers know a lot of the others who eat and chill around them and at least can recognize the rest. Some of the groups in the courtyard do have a reputation for having only lots of well off and popular inhabitants. On the surface that may look true. Honestly, that was my first impression. But after spending time there I realized that this central location is rich with variety.

Not surprisingly, the people who hang around the outdoor basketball courts are there to play basketball. Though they may gather first at the sitting area by the trees and have some lunch, soon they will jump up and shoot hoops. That's not to say that these are sports nerds or fitness obsessives. While they play, they chat and socialize. Many of the kids who play on these courts picked up this friendly competition at lunch in middle school and just continued the tradition after graduating. The kids in this region are doing themselves a huge favor by exercising and having a lot of fun in the process.

Finally, the library, the school's last true common ground. Last time I checked, we were all kind of nerds and the library is a great place to get last-minute essays done and cram those needed study moments in. Therefore, everyone's been in there and everyone will continue to go there. Not a lot of socializing is supposed to go on in here, though. The librarians try to keep things quiet, but with so many people crammed in it's often easy to start talking to someone you've never met before.

Even in this common place, many resist intermingling with people outside of their comfort zone. This is true throughout the school. Even extremely social people can look at their own classes' section in the yearbook and not recognize many faces.

There's a good chance that the kids in the school you have never seen are the people whose homing beacon calls them somewhere outside your stomping grounds. It's as if we are happy to live in our own bubble and ignore the rest.

On the other hand, Lowell has about 2,800 students, so we can't know everybody.

But that's no reason why I can't at least make some more expeditions out of my own stomping grounds during my next two years here. Maybe you will join me in this mission. Sit somewhere new tomorrow and meet some people you never knew existed. Go trot this mini-globe. Cross borders. You don't even need a passport.