Written by Karlo Rodriguez; Student Contributor

March 2025 issue

If there is one thing I have learned in college, it is that your routine can get boring so fast in a
heartbeat. During your first and second week, you will be having the most fun from meeting new
people in your classes to going to fun events and participating in new activities outside of your
comfort zone. But as the weeks move forward, you will notice that your routine will continue to
be the same. Being a college student means being free to make your own decisions. But you will
feel that you are caught in a never-ending cycle of waking up and going to class and sleeping.
You can decide to change things up, but you will feel like it is too much work. In the SpongeBob
SquarePants episode: Season 2, Episode 6 – Squidville, the episode covers a perspective of what
it is like to get stuck in a routine and how someone can change that by having fun. It is okay to
stay within a routine, and sometimes it is safer to keep it a certain way. But there will always be a
time when you must change that routine if you want to add some fun and move away from that
monotonous life.

The episode starts with SpongeBob SquarePants, with their best friend Patrick Star and
good friend Squidward Tentacles. SpongeBob and Patrick start playing with Reef Blowers that
they got as a package. After having some fun with it, SpongeBob wanted to use their Reef
Blowers to “improve” Squidward’s day. SpongeBob and Patrick do renovations around
Squidward’s house, but Squidward finds out. Squidward then exclaims, to SpongeBob and
Patrick, why they are doing this to their house. When Squidward asks afterwards to put all their
stuff back to the house, SpongeBob and Patrick uses their Reef Blowers. Only with an outcome
of Squidward’s house exploding in the process. Squidward then explains to SpongeBob that they
vow to move far away from SpongeBob and Patrick. It is until then that Squidward’s television
rains down from the sky, from the debris, and puts a commercial about a place called Tentacle
Acres. Squidward watches the commercial and finds interest in moving away from SpongeBob
and Patrick.

It is understandable that Squidward is angry at the situation. Squidward simply wants to
have their own life, free from the annoyance and pressure of SpongeBob and Patrick. To be fair,
SpongeBob and Patrick did go overboard with improving Squidward’s house. But if you have
watched SpongeBob SquarePants, you will know that each episode shows Squidward being
bombarded with SpongeBob. What makes it different though is that SpongeBob does something
different every day, and each episode covers a whole new topic. Unlike many shows, like
Gravity Falls, each episode in SpongeBob SquarePants is always different. None of the episodes
connect, but that is what makes the show different. There is always something new and
something that you cannot predict at all. It is what makes life fun, since you do not know what is
going to happen next.

After an extraordinary interview of three questions, Squidward gets invited to live in
Tentacle Acres. The gates at Tentacle Acres open, showing a wide array of the same houses, the
community, and the attitude of the people. When the next day goes by, Squidward starts their day
by biking around the city. Afterwards, Squidward heads to the grocery store to shop. They then
find an interpretive dance academy that Squidward joins. Then, Squidward ends their day finding
a clarinet trio to which they join. The day finally ends with Squidward happy about the entire
day. However, when the next day approaches, Squidward finds themselves repeating this same
routine. In the episode, you can then see Squidward’s smile slowly going down each day.

What Squidward is feeling right now is a monotonous life. You are so happy to start the
day with something new, and you are excited because you know that this will make your life
even better. But as you keep doing this, your happiness drains because you are just not excited
anymore to continue doing this. Squidward says something that explains how he feels at the end
of his routine: “They might as well rename this town Squidward’s Paradise. Or perhaps… Too
much paradise.” If you think about it, this was Squidward’s dream. Squidward did not want to
live with SpongeBob or Patrick anymore. And Squidward did get their dream. But unlike what
they were living like beforehand, Squidward’s dream did not plan for spontaneous adventures or
random things about life. It is just the same thing over and over again.

Squidward is at a park, sitting on a bench. They hear a Reef Blower in the background.
When the groundskeeping employee left, they also left the Reef Blower on sight. Squidward
goes up to it and decides to play around with the Reef Blower. Squidward then goes on an
adventure with the Reef Blower, using it towards the community at Tentacle Acres. This, in turn,
created an angry mob who chased after Squidward. When Squidward is cornered by the angry
mob, Squidward explains to the community members that the town is a grievance. Squidward
says, “There should be a law against so many stuck-up tightwads living in one place! This city
needs to be destroyed! Or at least painted a different color.”

I believe that Squidward is trying to say that the town needs to accept that people should
be able to do things out of the ordinary. Explaining also that the town needs to be different, rather
than making everyone feel the same. In the neighborhood: everybody had the same house, same
routine, and the same attitude. There was no “being different”. I can assume that everybody else
in that community went through what Squidward was going through: Living the monotonous life
repeatedly and losing that happiness. If you keep living that same life, you are just going to be
comfortable. Squidward was able to be happy by doing something out of the ordinary. But that is
not to say that the entire community at Tentacle Acre’s is not happy. Many people prefer that life
and that is okay. However, there are some that may be feeling that their life may be repetitive or
unfulfilling.

Towards the end, Squidward runs off with the Reef Blower to escape Tentacle Acres.
SpongeBob and Patrick were also there to try to find Squidward and convince them to move
back to their neighborhood. As they see Squidward fly off with the Reef Blower, SpongeBob
says: “Well, we know one thing… It sure isn’t that guy.” SpongeBob and Patrick, bewildered by
the fact that the person in the air is Squidward, could not connect that the person they knew,
earlier and now, was the same person. At the end, Squidward was happy flying away from
Tentacle Acres and living a new life of going out of their comfort zone. It was a change that
Squidward needed so they could escape from that life of the same routine.

During my time in college, I decided to get an on-campus job. It is not always sitting at a
computer or answering the phone, but that there is a different thing to do all the time. You do not
know what each day is going to include, what people are going to ask, or what tasks are going to
be given. I am not saying that everyone should get a job as they are in college, but it was
something that helped me break through the monotonous life of a college student. Something I
encourage all of you to do is get a job, go to events, meet new people, or just change up the path
of where you walk to class. It could be anything to mix things up. Even the smallest thing that
changes your routine can make a big difference in your life. Again, you can keep living the same
routine. But, if you ever have an inkling that you are unhappy with where you are currently at,
then maybe it is time to change things up. Because you never know if you do not like something
if you never tried it.