By Emmet SullivanPLAY Editor
Everyone has freshman year horror stories. It’s part of college, and it makes for great conversations for years to come.
The Devo Editor and I were talking the other day about our respective freshman years, and his sounds a lot duller than mine. Of course, Matt doesn’t have a social life. Hence the Devo Editor.
My own freshman year was spent in the claustrophobic halls of South Mid-Quads (shout out to room 201! P.S. your radiator sucks). There were the highs – ask any SMQ ’04-’05 alum about the Satan prank phone calls and you’ll hear a good story – and there were way too many lows – Election Night 2004, where one very liberal girl ended up throwing up in the hallway after the election was called, turned out to be one of the worst nights of the year. And I don’t think my dorm was alone in that.
It was like living on a deserted island. It sucked while we were there – after that getting to know you phase wore off it was all “OK guys, who’s having sex in the kitchen now?” – but there’s this weird bond between everyone who made it through.
Maybe a better analogy would be a reality TV series. We had way too many characters, and surprisingly only three or four theater majors. The rest – from the conservative Wisconsinite who was a little too excited about Kelly Clarkson to the pretty obnoxious New Yorker with a loud voice and an equally loud wardrobe – could have filled a Real World house in an instant.
The drama wasn’t just limited to the insane personalities either. We had two very fun pregnancy “scares” in winter quarter, one coming from a girl who had never even had sex and the other so insane that the baby was already named before anyone took a test (I believe it was Ferdinand. Or Fergie if it was a girl. They had a sense of humor). Out of the 80 people in the dorm, we had 20 different dormcest hookups (granted, about 12 of those happened in just fall quarter. Only two made the jump to sophomore year). And the fights weren’t just fights; they were full-on battles. Punches were thrown, tears were shed and I believe more than once there was a walk to the Lakefill to cool off after someone just totally screwed you over.
Needless to say, it was an interesting experience, one I eventually grew to love.
This is my last column for PLAY. I’m heading off to Texas (I’m pretty sure I’m gonna be killed), but Deena Bustillo is taking over in the winter (she wrote the scandalous cover story on the next page, so you know she’s going to be good). These nine weeks have been a lot like freshman year for me. It’s had its highs and lows, for sure, but looking back it’s been a lot of fun.
I’m gonna bounce. And Steve was a Daily tool before I even knew what CQ meant.
Medill junior Emmet Sullivan is the PLAY editor. He can be reached at [email protected].
