Superstitious or not, there are certain myths people are not willing to challenge at Brown. I mean, why would you when the risks are so great? Others have become traditions so ingrained in students’ minds that we almost forget they might not have a place in the real world.
The Abstinence Walk
No, I am not talking about that walk that you proudly took last weekend at 11 pm when you followed through with your vow that it wasn’t going to be that kind of night. I’m talking about the walk that avoids pregnancy, and it involves a quick step and a hop. A common superstition here is that men who step on the Pembroke Seal will not graduate (similar to walking through the Van Wickle Gates twice) while women who step on this seal will get pregnant. This discrepancy in “punishment” corresponds with Brown’s more sexist environment when the Pembroke Woman’s college first merged with the rest of the university in 1971. Though most students are only knowledgeable of this superstition if they remember it from their tour upon visiting Brown, you will still find students dangerously leaping over the Seal on the iciest of days. And every now and then, there will be that sharp intake of breath as an upperclassman cringes towards that ignorant freshman all caught up in midterm study flash cards, who fails to notice his or her foolish treading on a crest that may— a step that may not determine their fate here at Brown…
The Jaywalk
Upon graduation, seniors can attest to the development in skills that Brown’s unique curriculum and extraordinary faculty have facilitated. Brown is often compared to peer institutions, and a skill that none of them can provide as well as Brown, or come close to, is the quality skill of Jaywalking. Especially on a given weekday, Thayer’s slow one way traffic facilitates perfect grounds for disregarding the lack of cross walk to get from Starbucks to Au Bon Pain 45 seconds faster. If the streets of Los Angeles represent the Yangtze River, complete with hellish gorges and viciously squawking, dangerous animals, Thayer represents a gentle, friendly stream that invited one to dip a toe in, or jump back and forth across. And this “pedestrian-comes-first-over-30-ton-vehicle” mentality has made students very ignorant towards the basic traffic laws. I have seen students who no longer even check the street signal, cross, and then decide three-quarters of the way in the street that they’d actually rather get Nice Slice instead of Antonio’s, so then turn right around. (Again, not looking.) I almost feel like the drivers around here have learned to adapt to the Brown Pedestrian and accept that perhaps traffic signals are too mainstream for us. A couple weeks ago, I was in New Haven and almost got run down the second I stepped off the sidewalk to get to my destination 30 seconds faster. I caught my breath and then lamely preceeded to press and wait for the cross walk, all the while thinking, “Shoot, I guess I’m not in Providence anymore.”
The Friday Fast Walk
You know this one. The walk that has the urgency of the “I have to go to the bathroom” walk and the strategic
elbowing swinging of the “B*tch, get out of my way” walk. It’s the march to the V-Dub on Chicken Finger Friday. From the scheduling of Pembroke classes on Fridays to the strategic cutting through of the Sydney Frank underpass, weeks of Fridays and aggravating lines have primed students to master the best techniques. And once you leave this beautiful place, don’t be surprised to find yourself naturally walking slightly faster around noon on the last work day of the week. Brown students talk the talk, and definitely walk that CFF walk.
Perhaps these are things we’ll have to forget once we graduate. We will have to remember to look both ways before we cross, stop fearing a seal on the pavement and, well, I’m sure we can find an equivalent of Chicken Finger Friday once we enter the corporate world.