Fellow students of UF, I come to you bearing important and sobering news.
You're not going to be in college forever.
I know, I know. It's tragic. Underclassmen will probably take the news hardest, but even for those of us pursuing (or preparing to pursue) our graduate studies who ended the honeymoon phase a long time ago, it can be a disappointing revelation.
After all, Gainesville has offered us so much, and we're understandably reluctant to lose it all as we move out into the rest of the world.
But it's going to happen. One way or the other, you're going to leave UF.
For a great many of us, the same sort of middle-class suburbs we grew up in will become our home in a decade's time as we begin to raise families of our own.
Admittedly, a select few will migrate to large cities, inhabiting modestly sized but egregiously overpriced apartments.
An even smaller portion of us will remain in college towns, choosing to spend our lives in cities just like Gainesville. You're just hopelessly nostalgic.
However, the vast majority of us are not going to have too much more time to spend enjoying the assets a city like Gainesville offers. And yet, so many of you take those assets for granted.
I'm not referring to the academic opportunities, the free shows and performances or the cultural atmosphere.
I'm talking about the food, of course.
One thing that always accompanies college towns is an abundance of independently owned and operated restaurants. They're all unique, and quite a few of them are downright delicious. You're not going to be able to find them anywhere else. They survive only so long as you patronize them.
And yet, chain-restaurant Chipotle Mexican Grill still manages to entice hundreds of students every day, none of whom consider for even a second that other options are available.
I get it; I do. Chain restaurants are convenient, fast and tasty. But they're also available everywhere you go.
No matter where you eat for lunch today, all of those places are going to stay open, and they're going to continue to expand throughout the country.
The same cannot be said for Burrito Brothers or Boca Fiesta. If you opt to abandon them, they lose a valued customer, and their chances of survival plummet. And once you leave Gainesville, you leave them behind as well.
Since I've been here, I've seen countless great restaurants close because they just can't afford to keep up with diminishing patrons. Gator Dawgs, despite being a Gainesville staple, was almost forced to close its doors earlier this year and survived the recession only because its ardent fans rushed in to keep it afloat. Others weren't so lucky.
And yet, just about every single Starbucks and McDonald's in town seems to be doing quite well for itself.
It doesn't make much sense to me to eat at Chick-fil-A once a week when you know it'll be there when you go home for Christmas break. What won't be there are all of the inimitable Gainesville restaurants that you'll never find anywhere else.
There's hope. There are success stories. In the coming years, Bento Cafe may prove to be one of the greatest of them all.
But the fact remains, if I didn't constantly strive to venture out and take advantage of all the unique culinary experiences Gainesville has to offer, I never would have found Sweet Mel's, and I never would have encountered an amazing burger whose bun has been replaced by either entire grilled cheese sandwiches or funnel cake (your choice).
And that, I'm sure we can all agree, would have been a travesty.
Alex Guilmartin is a psychology and pre-law senior at UF. His column appears on Thursdays.
