Anyone who’s gone to school here for more than two seconds knows at least one of the following things: It rains a lot and absolutely everyone, without exception, no matter how blonde, fit, bro-like, or sexy (not that there are too many that fit into the latter category, let’s be real) have a deep seated, irremovable inner nerd. As Morgan and I pondered about what to write about for our debut column (written for your reading pleasure every week) we came to this conclusion about just how awkward everyone is here. We don’t mean it in a mean-girl, condescending way either. We fully admit that we too have our silly, embarrassing moments or habits…but we thought it would be fun to recount just how we came to this fact through things we’ve casually observed from day to day, here at good old William & Mary.
Morg and I quickly drafted up a sequence of events that proves our point (she endearingly titled it Sh*t My friends Have Done) though we added many more anecdotes from various other hilariously weird encounters we have experienced on campus.
The first thing that popped into our heads when assuring ourselves that everyone (no matter how cool he or she thinks they may be) is just a tad bit dorky was when one of our best friends exhibited his oddity to us on the beach. As we sun bathed, chatted, and laughed it up with our friends, we noticed that one of our closest guy friends drifted from the group. Where did he escape to on the small Jamestown Beach, you ask? Oh, only about sixteen feet away, where he very clearly broke out into a “kung fu routine he had learned as a black belt in high school” in order to “get his work out in”. Mind you, he didn’t tell us where he was going, nor did he seem embarrassed once he noticed we were watching in complete awe…He just proceeded to jab and kick with all his might and return completely satisfied with himself. We never let that die, especially since this once particular individual is verbally proud about his fratty lifestyle and brags about it on the regular. Along with this lovely anecdote, we scoured up images of two fraternity boys at spin class (don’t quote us on this, but high-fiving may have been involved), a girl getting way too emotional about dropping a Wawa sandwich on Richmond Road, everybody dressing up for the Harry Potter premiere (and we don’t mean just to the actual movie…it was a day-long event for some), studying with your significant other on video chat…without speaking…just to see one another, sending Facebook messages, IM’s, video messages and more—when the recipient is sitting right next to you, falling asleep at Swem while wearing a “one-sie” (not as a joke or dare, just because you got cold), knowing what happens in every single episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer (what? It was a good show back then!)…and the list could go on.
As far as things we’ve happen to run into on the way to class? Well, there was the time we witnessed LARP-ing in the Sunken Gardens (for those of you who are unfamiliar—though I doubt you are, because that would defeat the point of the article—LARP stands for “Live Action Role Playing” and consists of men and women acting out medieval battles with home-made weapons), a male student casually reading…in a tree, young men and women literally camping out at Swem for finals (a tent may or may not have been constructed for said campout…pillows and blankets were also a must), watching kids by the dozens (and this is in the same family as LARP-ing) RANCE around campus, which is when students listen to music on their individual Ipods, get together, and dance…silently…across the entire campus…for exercise, and again, the list could go on. Along with these gems, there’s the fact that some individuals refuse to call our school by its proper name and instead refer to its original name of “The College” (because it was the first college in the United States, ya get it?!). That’s helpful, right? Because you couldn’t show school pride in a more healthy way like attending a sporting event or wearing Tribe gear…no, you should definitely refer to its original name to prove how much you love your school. Moving on, we have a “Juggling and Circus Skills Society” (which is actually kind of cool, but pretty eccentric to say the least), a “Macintosh User Group”, a “Tribe Society for Paranormal Research”, and other such organizations that help prove our point.
Now, before people get in an uproar about how mean we are, we’d like to clarify a few things. We have no intentions of being at all malicious or rude. In fact, we actually enjoy all the quirky weirdness that goes on here. It’s what makes our little school unique and awesome in its own way. Where else are you going to find kids who try to outrun each other on the way to class WHILE balancing books on their heads? Nowhere, that’s where. And besides, we have definitely had our own moments, but instead of boring you further, we thought we’d just provide visual evidence. That’s all for now. Live Long and Prosper.