The beginning of a new academic year is always exciting. Reuniting with friends, exchanging tales of absurd shenanigans from the summer, and, let’s be real, going to the lobster bake—all these things make for a delightful cocktail of fun times and cute outfits.
However, this time of peace will be torn apart by the stress and angst, both social and academic, that will descend upon the campus in about two weeks time.
The first years got a head start in the angst-fest when they stomped around New England during their godforsaken Orientation trips with people they had never met.
The sophomores, on the other hand, appear slightly more relaxed at this point, despite the tidal wave of decisions they will have to make this year: WTF even is a major? Should I go abroad? Should I get an internship?
Don’t get us started about the seniors. The stress and uncertainty already emanating from visitors to the Career Planning Center and the inhabitants of the Tower merit mandatory meetings with the Counseling Center. We encourage all of you to make an appointment as soon as possible.
As for the juniors—half of us are gone, half remain. Yes, we miss each other. Yes, it is awful. However, this accursed situation does allow for some entertainment. For the next semester we will offer you our perspectives, from inside and outside the Bowdoin bubble, on whatever it is that is gnawing at the soon-to-be frozen souls that inhabit this campus.
We can only hope that Alexander’s perspective from abroad will offer a respite from the rampant bitching that will soon plague the. We also look forward to his special investigation into missing British human rights workers, what it’s like to live somewhere without snow and with sun, and most importantly, 10 ways to occupy yourself when you can’t stream Netflix.
But returning to campus, the first years and their social anxiety were on full display this past week. We all remember the days we depended on easy conversation starters and ice breakers, such as: where are you from? What dorm are you in? What Pre-O did you do?
This year, we heard a new way to kick off a conversation—by taking shots at our dear campus’ pink monolithic structure, Searles Science Building. To summarize the eloquence of a typical conversation: “it’s ugly.” “Yup.”
People pick on Searles because it’s one of the easiest things to talk about, but we can be more creative. You can discuss the worst eyesore on campus, the Visual Arts Center, with its heinous 70s architecture.
What are the meanings behind the yonic nature of the VAC and the phallic towers of the chapel? Why the postmodern glass entrance to a renaissance-inspired museum? You could even talk about the crumbling foundation of Burnett House.
Alas, none of these more riveting topics of conversation were chosen since they would have demanded less superficial discussions between first years.
What was happening is what always seems to be happening on campus. We have a habit of choosing the easy conversations and ignoring the difficult or more interesting ones in an effort to appear put-together.
Bowdoin students don’t do “disheveled”—we leave that to kids at Colby and Bates. Even the kids who do look disheveled spent a lot of time digging around “Salvo” looking for that perfect owl shirt and hand knit sweater.
We look nice everyday, get to class, offer politically correct statements in difficult discussions, smile fabulously on the Quad, rant online, and then silently cry in our showers.
We hope that the new first year class will break this culture—we hope first years choose the difficult conversations, attack the issues they are passionate about with energy and unashamed intellectualism, and realize that they will learn more about (and from) their peers when they say provocative and thought provoking things.
We all feel stressed out and angsty from time to time, and we all deserve to rant whine, and bitch. Let’s at least make our screeds meaningful and interesting this year.
Hopefully our confessions will move from Facebook pages to the dining hall tables, and then finally we will admit that we might not have it all together. We are capable of that much—because let’s be honest—how many of our worries here aren’t #firstworldproblems?