Column: Another ode to the Varsity

I love Christmastime.

Even though, in college, exams often overshadow the joy of the season, I still manage to get excited for the holidays here in Chapel Hill.

From the decorations on the streets of Carrboro to the “Twelve Days of Christmas” display in the Carolina Inn to even, yes, the “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” -worthy decorations on Frat Court, the Chapel Hill-Carrboro area breathes Christmas while its students try to just breathe during finals.

Between the aesthetic glimmer of UNC and the impending doom of finals, one of my favorite UNC traditions is one of the most underrated.

I’m talking about the showing of “It’s a Wonderful Life” at the Varsity Theatre on Franklin Street every December.

If I could write the rest of my opinion columns on the wonders of the Varsity, I would (in fact, my first column ever for the DTH was about the theater), but I want to focus on this special showing of the film.

I first visited the Varsity my first year specifically for this movie.

A group of my closest friends and I hopped on the P2P bus in the first week of December and curled up together, hidden in the warmth of the little theater.

I’ve always loved “It’s a Wonderful Life,” and my family watches it every single year together during the holiday season.

But watching it with my friends in the middle of exams and at the end of a revelatory semester made the film take on a new meaning. I was at home.

I won’t spoil the film, but the gist of it is the hero realizes how good life is despite hardships.

It takes the intervention of an angel to get him there, but nonetheless it’s a classic holiday movie and it makes even the most stoic viewers feel warm inside.

Perhaps the Varsity is that angel for me.

Its shining, fluorescent marquee is my own green light at the end of the dock.

The film is also a wonderful reminder to enjoy the time you have and to not let distractions take away from the gifts that are your friends and family.

And now, two years after my first time in the Varsity, I sat in the theater with nearly the same group of friends as I did then, and knew for sure, once again, that home is a feeling, not a place.

It’s also the people around you and the events you share with them.

I’ve written a lot about the meaning of home in various columns, but it’s something I keep returning to because it’s always changing.

And I’m learning to appreciate it in its various forms.

I think I fell in love at the Varsity multiple times — with the theater, with a person, with my friends, with Chapel Hill.

Catch “It’s a Wonderful Life” before Dec. 8 and maybe you’ll feel the same thing I do every time I watch it at the Varsity.

There are some things that don’t lose their magic despite their frequency.