My roommates and I decided to start our first night out as seniors at the Seagrape Cafe (suprise, surprise). Of course, we have ended up at the bar every night we’ve gone out since since this school year started, but that particular night we went for a celebratory drink at 7 p.m. when there was no sign of a Fairfield senior (or really anyone for that matter). My friends and I got to talking to one of the bartenders and the ensuing conversation inspired me to write this column.
After we introduced ourselves to the bartender, told him where we lived and asked him how he liked working at the Seagrape, he said, “So is your class going to be better than the last one? They sucked. Never came into the bar…”
Of course, I jumped in and hastily answered, “Absolutely, we are a great class…” At the time, the answer to his question rolled off my tongue so effortlessly that I didn’t even have a second thought about indirectly bashing the last class of seniors and heralding ours.
Why do I think so highly of my class? This is a question that I have been pondering since that night. I started to think about our four years here and thought about how our grade has over and over again gotten the shaft.
Let me trace the bad history of the class of 2006. We start our freshman year pumped up with excitement for the infamous Clam Jam and Luau. However, authority was secretly snickering at our anticipation because, guess what freshman? You are too late! With the injunction in effect, students can only dream of what that weekend must have been like for the prior classes, because it will never happen again on that level.
Yet another incident added to the pile of bad news of our freshman year. Does anyone recall going to their mailboxes one random day and finding a “breaking news” letter stating that the university is “very sorry,” but it is disbanding our football and hockey programs, inevitably forcing some of our best friends to transfer?
After that, the downward spiral continued. Juniors can no longer live off campus. We were told to pack into the townhouses and forget our leases and lost money. Keg races were gone.
I know some of you probably did not even give a second thought to getting rid of keg races. It is a disgusting tradition, I know. Others could not care less about not living at the beach junior year. Don’t get me wrong here. I am not suggesting that we need the beach or binge drinking to have a great college experience. However, I, as did many of my classmates, came into FU with preconceived notions about how our four years would be spent.
After having heard stories about the insanity that was Clam Jam or having known juniors who got to live at the beach, understandably, I was curious to see what all the hype was about. So, on the surface, it seemed like we lost a lot.
However, the reason I believe the reason that our class is so exceptional is that, even in spite of all these obstacles and setbacks, my college experience has been nothing short of fabulous. Despite the lack of school spirit which plagues our campus as a whole, there is, in contrast, so much camaraderie that exists among the students of the 2006 class that it amazes me.
The interesting part is that I cannot put my finger on a single thing that makes us shine more than the other seniors who came before us. Maybe it is that we are sick of being shafted, and, therefore, we unite under that commonality. Or maybe it is that in times of change, you identify with the people around you. Who knows? But whatever the case may be, I think there is something undeniably special about us.
As the school year has just begun, we seniors have a chance to forget the traditions of which we were deprived and the obstacles that have gotten in the way of good times. We have a chance to invent new traditions and to leave a lasting legacy as our predecessors did with many of the traditions which have so suddenly slipped away from our class.
Although I will not run down a list of things that give me such enormous faith that this class will rise to the challenge, I will say that I have no doubt that we will be remembered. Like I said, some, or even all, of you may disagree with much of what I have rambled about in this column, but somehow I doubt that. I am confident that this school year will speak for itself.
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