What Freshman Orientation (as a junior) Taught Me

     I completely agree with DL about freshman orientation. I had mostly forgotten it, except for a vague disdain for it and a lingering feeling of its stupidity and childishness. But it all came back to me on Tuesday. I remembered the silly activities we had to do, because we did the exact same ones again, but this time I was the annoying junior staring an embarrassed freshman in the eyes and saying "Ooh la la I see you!" or some other ridiculous phrase meant to make you as uncomfortable as possible. I remember being the embarrassed freshman who probably just mumbled whatever they told us to say, because there was no way I was going to make myself look that dumb. But I quickly got over myself on Tuesday, and said the phrases without shame while the freshman opposite me mumbled it back and looked tortured. I remember, as a freshman, watching the balloon pop activity and being so glad I was not the one doing it. I had a much different view of it as a Link Leader instead of a freshman. On Tuesday, the balloon pop went like this: a boy and a girl Link Leader were called down from the stands. Five girl freshmen and five boy freshman volunteered to come down. They were given balloons and the girls were told to line up behind the girl Link Leader, the boys behind the boy Link Leader. The teacher then told them the object of the game: pop the balloon by putting it between you and the Link Leader and hugging each other. The teacher then said, "But you know what? I made a mistake. I meant for Ethan to be over here, and Allison to be over here." (laughs from the crowd when they realized what was happening, appalled faces from the volunteers) So Ethan and Allison switched places, and then commenced one of the funniest things I've seen all summer: these freshman guys walking up to Allison and literally picking her off the ground, shaking her, trying to pop their balloons. The guys took twice as long to pop theirs. I guess the girls were just really eager, because they had no trouble. They just ran up, hugged the balloon and Ethan, and POP! But over on Allison's side, the boys were really struggling, and I was cracking up laughing, but none of the freshman girls beside me were laughing very much, so I felt really awkward. Earlier, I had seen the girl beside me send her friend a text that said something like, "Lol, I hate everyone here" and her friends said something like, "Lol, I know" and she said something like, "Lol, it's hot in here" (it was really hot in there, but I thought that "I hate everyone" was a bit harsh).

The funny thing is, I pinned this quote before I ever
experienced what he was talking about first-hand.

     But anyway, after all of the activities in the stifling gym, we broke into small groups and went to separate classrooms to do activities with our groups of freshman. I was with two other Link Leaders, and eight freshman, who were all surprisingly nice and well-behaved. I managed to direct two activities without problem, or even being that nervous. I was really proud of myself. But then came the 40 questions game. Once all of the freshman had picked a question at random, I'd read it off, and they'd answered, it was the Link Leader's turn to answer. I did the first one, then Jeremy went, and then it was Haley's turn. Her first question was "What did you like about junior high?" but she couldn't think of anything (I don't blame her) so I told her she could pick a new one, so she gave me a new number and I gave her the question: "If you could change anything about your life, what would it be?" She thought for a little bit, and I told her that it was a hard question and she could pick a new one, but then she was like, "Anything?" and I was like, "Yeah, like you're eye color, or your parents... well, not that because you wouldn't be here." and then after a little while she said, "I would change my brother having cancer." And I just felt like, everything drop inside me, and the silent classroom seemed to grow even silenter and I didn't know what to say, and there was just silence, and I said, "I would want to change that too" and then silence and then, "Um, I guess we can do the 64 squares game? Do you want to...?" to Jeremy, and then the silence was broken, and we moved into the next activity, and everything went back to normal, and I wanted to say something to Haley, like "Hey, I'm sorry about your brother" but I didn't know whether she'd want me to bring it up again, or just forget about it. It was one of those times where everything snaps back to normal and you're afraid to bring it back to where it was. So I didn't say anything, even though I wanted to. But the thing is, I never knew that about her. I had thought that she was a pretty, popular girl, with few cares or worries in her life. But that wasn't it. That wasn't the case at all. I know, I should have learned this lesson a long time ago: Don't judge a book by its cover. You can't judge a person until you know them. But it's like that "This Is Water" speech: It's easy to just categorize people, to just see the surface and make judgements, and move on, because it's hard to actually get to know someone, to care about people, and to think of people complexly.
     So it wound up that I got to know freshman at freshman orientation, but I also got to know a senior, who I'd never known, but had always labeled and categorized and misjudged. And I realized the value of spending time with people, of working together, of trying to know someone new.
     I'm not being corny, I'm being real. You don't know what people are going through. You just don't. You can't know. But you can be nice. And you can try to understand.

Day 271 Song Recommendation: "I'm Looking Through You" by The Beatles. Here's a modified version of the balloon pop which I found on Pinterest whilst looking for pictures of pep rallies. I found it hilarious, especially when the guy comes in and pops the balloon (and she falls all over the guy), because that's what the teacher had to do for Allison. She told us (the Link Leaders) that she had a safety pin handy in case it was taking too long to pop the balloon (and hence getting super awkward). It looks really painful for the guy when the girl pops the balloon and lands on his stomach. The balloon pop doesn't start till 00:52 and ends at 1:34 or so and then the cinematography gets really jerky and pukey.
-SE Wagner