Shelby Cashman
Hometown: Morristown, NJ
Position: Contributor, Campus Celebrities
#SpotTheOneWhoDoesn’tBelong
Ah, freshman year. As I am approaching my second semester as a junior, I would give my left arm to be able to go back to there, as life is just moving way too fast. Every time I see or meet a freshman now, I have the uncontrollable urge to tell them, “DO NOT take this year for granted” or, more importantly, “want to swipe me in at the dining hall?” There are so many things I miss about being a freshman, but mainly I miss the ability to get away with things. People seem to let many embarrassing moments slide, writing it off as “Oh, its ok. They are a freshman!” That excuse does me no good anymore…
Anyways, one of these said embarrassing freshman moments came when I first discovered the breathtakingly beautiful University of Michigan Law Library. One of the older girls in my sorority informed me of this “hidden gem” of a study spot, where there were hardworking law students, silence, and a blatantly obvious resemblance to Hogwarts. Needless to say, it sounded like the ultimate place to go hit the books. So, one night, I decided to travel to the law library, with my hall mates in tow. We were buzzing with excitement about being seen at this “cool” place where not only upperclassmen, but also law students were! We were going to seem like we were older and more mature, too! Or, so we thought…
Of course, we had all just rushed sororities, as you rush during the first semester of your freshman year here at Michigan. It is the typical practice to wear your sorority letters, especially as a freshman, because it is something new and something to be proud of. On this particular night when we decided to try out the law library, we were decked out in sorority gear. Obviously, this drew attention to us as not only undergraduates, but as typical “sorority girls,” which is apparently not something that the law students empathize with. We walked into the library, and (to put it lightly) were speechless and gawked at the atmosphere. So, at this point, we had 2 strikes against us on the “things not to do at the law library” list:
- DO NOT wear sorority gear
- DO NOT stand in the entryway and look up at the ceilings and whisper to your friends “OMG, THIS IS SO COOL!”
Yet, as most freshman are of their mishaps, we remained blissfully unaware, and scurried off to find seats. Once we sat down and began to settle in, I reached into my backpack to take out my laptop (pink case included) and then it happened….
I opened up my laptop and went to plug in my headphones so that I could listen to music while I did my work. But, as just my luck would have it, I did not plug them in all the way, and pressed play on my ITunes. All of the sudden, the entire law library was filled with the sounds of Beyonce’s hit song, “All the Single Ladies.” Every single eye turned to me, and stared in what can only be described as a mixture of horror, annoyance, and amusement. I was absolutely flummoxed and spastic, and tried to press pause in a tizzy. Instead, I just kept missing the pause button and kept touching random keys on my laptop, none of which shut off the music. I turned an ungodly shade of red, a shade I never thought possible. I’d say the music went on for a good 30 seconds (which seemed like an eternity) before my friend finally reached over, closed my laptop, and burst out laughing. I could now add a 3rd strike to the list:
- MAKE SURE your headphones are fully plugged into your laptop before playing music, to avoid an entire library full of hardworking students staring at you.
All I can say is that every single person who witnessed that fateful scene at the law library was mot likely thinking…. Typical Freshman.
Erin Steele
Hometown: Vienna, Virginia
Position: Contributor, News
#footloose?
As a freshman on the dance team, I got really nervous whenever we’d perform around school. On the night of my first basketball game, I nearly had a panic attack as we got ready to take the court for a time out performance. “Don’t mess up,” I kept telling myself. We ran out onto the court, waving and smiling, and the next thing I know I’m face down on the floor! I had tripped… over myself. I heard the giant “oooooooohhhhhhhh” coming from the student section and knew at that moment my life was over (okay, that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but that’s what it felt like!). I got up and kept dancing, but it may or may not have scarred me for life. At least my teammates got a good laugh out of it!
Nicole Joseph
Hometown: Royal Oak, Michigan
Position: Contributor, Campus Cuties
#notintheshower
Public showers are already a disgusting thought as it is. Being told I should wear flip-flops in the shower for the next 8 months was already an indicator that I was going to be grossed out by community bathrooms. Add that to the experiences my hall had with people vomiting in our showers and someone even taking a dump in the middle of the bathroom floor. Now maybe you can picture an idea of why I hate community bathrooms. Well, my fellow Collegiettes ™, let me further destroy your faith in public showers by explaining my personal favorite story from my freshman year that has scarred me from community bathrooms to this day.
It was the last few weeks of the school year and after being mentally destroyed by two exams, I decided an all-nighter was needed to prepare for my last two. It was around 3 in the morning when I eventually stopped studying (as a side note – it was a Wednesday night during finals week) and decided I needed to shower. I grabbed my shower stuff and walked down my deserted hallway to the empty bathroom. I was only showering for 15 minutes, but that’s all it took for fate to completely trample on my faith that public showers aren’t completely disgusting.
I heard the bathroom door open and people came stumbling into the bathroom, directly to the shower stalls. All I can say about the following chain of events is that I’m happy I was smart enough to figure out what was going on due to a) the lack of water running in the stall next to mine and b) the awkward pounding on the wall that ensued. As if finals week hadn’t curb stomped and spit on me when I was down, this had to happen. Just my luck!
I didn’t know what to do. It occurred to me somewhere between the “Oh yeah, you like that”s and slapping noise coming from the shower stall that made me realize they were completely oblivious to the fact that there was someone in the stall next to them despite the fact that my water was running. I turned off my shower and grabbed my towel to make my exit and leave them to it; however, the lack of water noise seemed to be the big indicator for the two next to me to realize, “Oh, wait, we’re not the only ones in the community bathroom. Oops.”
I’d like to say my awkward and uncomfortable tale ends there, but it doesn’t. As I was beginning to leave I heard the two bring up how they realized they weren’t alone and that one of them should check if the bathroom was empty or not. At this point my only thought was, “Please. This week has been something straight out of my nightmares. Spare me this awkward encounter”. Of course, just as I stepped out of my shower stall one of the randoms poked their heads out of the curtain. The awkward stare down that ensued can only be explained as the most painfully awkward ten seconds of my life, at the end of which all I could say to the rando was “stay classy” before she shut the curtain and got out of there.
Current freshmen – I can only leave you two pieces of advice in light of this incident. 1) Do not shower past midnight. 2) If you’re going to do that – do it anywhere else but a dirty, public shower.