tonight, let us begin by picking up where i last left off... oh so long ago.
i guess the last time i made any substantive post that had any-thing to do with my life was when i made the ‘my dorm blue up’ post. that was the end of my freshman year. so, where have i been since there?
well, during the summer i became an Orientation Leader(or OL) - i still don’t know why i always capitalize that, suppose i just have a tone of respect for the position. the way it was set up by the woman who organized it(beth rosenbleth... something to that effect), the job was meant to be more of an experience than a professional position. we would do a lot of work and we had long hours, at first. but in our free time we were strongly encouraged to have fun. by the end of the summer when we were ahead of schedule(on everything), we had nothing left to do but play games and get half the day off. it was not an unlikely scenario for us to stuff packets in the morning, then play dodge-ball in the afternoon. yes, we did get paid to play dodge-ball. we also got paid to have dance parties nearly every ten days. so, what was it that i did during to earn our wage? first i feel i should describe our compensation: we received some $3,000 for the summer, had a place to live, and were given a meal plan in the cafeteria. On the note of place to live, we lived in two places.
first, we were in stetson east... although we were there for only three weeks, our time in east is generally refered to as the first half of the summer. during those three weeks we had to do prep work for the summer, like make the “Husky Doo” movie. this was a spoof on scooby doo, that helped introduce students to life on the northeastern campus and in college in general. it was surprisingly informative, corny and funny. even though i got pretty sick of it by the 10th time i saw and haven’t watched it for nine months... i’m pretty sure i’d be laughing out loud if i popped in the dvd right now. we also did our training during the ‘first half’ of the summer. this was the time when northeastern university(NU) rolled out everyone who’s anyone so they could pander their messages to us... that way we’d be able to pander them off to the freshman. most of the staff complained about the incredibly dry meetings, yet i feel quite fortunate to have met all those people and so much about the university. there was a point when i knew everything there was to know about NU(except how to get into our anti-gravity room, a quest that still eludes me). that time has past. we all know how tamu and fact based memory recollection do not coincide. i do think that the information is in my mind, most of the time when people ask me questions about the school, i can answer them without really thinking... but no one really asks any more(just the same few questions: why NU? how many students? and are you really in boston or one of its suburbs?). so back to OL duties. that was the first half. the second half, which lasted the remaining two and a half months, was dedicated to two things materials prep and holding orientation sessions. materials prep was good because i was in charge of running it (i do love to be the decision maker). we had to organize documents, folders, lanyards, etc and store them/stuff them into 6,000 or so folders for freshman/parents/transfer students. we listened to music every day while stuffing. there something sacred about menial, repetitive labor... its calming. i get into the rhythm then just try to go faster and faster with it. and speed was not a problem. we got so fast at it, that we eventually had to just sit around while the other committees tried to catch up with our lightning speed. there were a bunch of random committees and groups through out the summer organized to tackle various tasks. normal, you may be thinking... but the reason why i bring this to your attention is because i ended up being on Kene’s groups every single time. kene was a supervisor who had been an OL the year before. i don’t really have a complaint regarding this... i really just found it quite odd.
Kene’s a good guy, i didn’t like him at the beginning of the summer. but, i warmed up on him. not to say i understand why the eric/alison/trish/stella group started hanging out with him at the end... but, i didn’t really look down on them for it. my other supervisors were greg chick(god boy who doesn’t understand the concept of empathy - i liked him at first until i realized just how clue-less and closed minded he actually was), nicky(absent girl who was completely indifferent to the whole orientation experience - annoyed me like non other until i accepted that she would never even try to care and grew to love the cinical whit and sarcasm that sprouted from it), and nicole(the californian ballerina - i love this woman, she’s just good stuff... a lot of the guys really had the hots for her, to me she was just another west coaster that i felt close to).
speaking of nicole A) she was the first supervisor that i’ve ever actually felt close to. normally i just hide and talk to them as little as possible. Beth for example, was a ghost to me. when she left people cried.... how’d i feel? i was just thinking ‘wait, was her last name was rosenbleet?’ B) Nicole was my direct supervisor, which meant we had to do 1 on 1’s and talk about life. also, at the end of the summer she was the one who gave me my review(on a scale of 1 to 5). at the beginning of the summer, she had told me that she would pretty much never give 5’s and 4 were considered excellent. so, imagine my confusion when we were both comparing our interpretations of my performance. i had given myself lots of three’s and fours. she had given me pretty much only 5’s. it was sweet. she was flabbergasted as to how i could ever have such a low self esteem. i asked her about her ‘five’s are rare policy’ and she said it was still in play, but, i was the exception. i was the OL she gave highest rating. damn straight... best performance on staff. you little bitches... betta’ recognize.
the final part of work was running orientations. were basically would herd people around by the dozen. the sessions generally had around 450 people and they were divided among us 30 OLs. tons of fun. if you had parents, they were quite simply looking for reasons to fall in love with you... so i just had to show them it was possible for a NU student to be everything they wished their children to become(easy job). if you were on students you simply had to get them to trust you and be witty about it... hoping that they would be able to last through the incredible boring and intimidating morning while they grew comfortable with their group. then at night you’d get down to the fun of things. i was the dance machine... i danced my ass off. and the parties could rarely get started if i wasn’t around. you know what i learned from that gig? it is a ton of work to get people to do what they know in their hearts they want to. people are to sheepish to do what makes them happy. no one ever wanted to be the first ones out on the dance floor. or, heaven forbid, be one of the few people out there dancing.... the odd thing is every single person in the room knew they were there to dance, but the damn pussies were too afraid to muster the moxy to actually do it. i would have lost all faith in humanity had Chris not been there when i was about to give up. he was my rock out on the dance floor... although you’ll never read this: thanks chris.. you rock. you saved my life... you saved my summer. as a testament to my dancecology, Jackie(operator of AfterHours, the place where we held the dances) still talks about me and my dancing. she actually offered me a job to just come to her venue and dance/get the parties started. that would have been a fun job, but i don’t think i would have been up for it physically. being a dance machine is exhausting. following any night where i had to start the dances by myself, i was a zombie. nearly useless at orientation sessions on the second day. oh well, the second days are usually not all that important. also, my orientees usually would ask me to give them dance lessons when they came back to school in the fall. of course i never gave anyone lessons, but i did make a lot of promises.
then there was the other half of being an OL: down time with friends. this is how it works: if your an OL, your probably finishing you freshman year. which means you don’t have that many friends... at least no one your really all that close to. plus no one really stays at NU after their freshman year. they go home because their all home-sick and such, plus, no one really needs to take classes during every summer session. furthermore, when your an OL, you live with all your coworkers. this all adds up to OLs living in a world thats filled with OL-ness. you live together, work together, eat together in the deserted cafeteria, and we became each other’s near only social lives. anyway you look at it that’s a whole lot of face to face time, in a university that can be extremely isolating. freshman year is the only time when the students are incorporated in the university community. after that, they are expected to build their own communities. what i’m trying to say is: we bonded that summer.
the most common waste of time was definitely sitting around the lobby waiting for people to walk past. i did a lot of talking with people who just happened to be there, like the proctors.... there was this one cute indian proctor that i did a lot of flirting with... a lot of flirting. she always made me happy to see her, then she’d tell me how much she liked that i was always happy. then there was all the gossip. it drove lots of people apart. there kinda ended up being two rival gangs(Joe/Madeline/Kim/Alex vs. Eric/Trish/Estella/Alison), then there were all the floaters in between.
Another thing to do in the lobby was play axis and allies(a board game like risk where each playing wages war in a quest for world domination. It was typical to hear me screaming phrases like “russian winter!” “Ukraine IS NOT weak!” or “german BLITZ-KRIGE!!”. well you could only hear those screams if they were louder than the incessant insults we slung back and forth. Matt and I were the main players... other people were Jay, Renee, Bobby, Chris, Nick, etc. Don’t think we just sat inside all day... exploring boston was a large part of the reason why i wanted the job.
Alison was the best for exploring. no one is better to talk with than my lovely alison. she... she... i don’t even know how to explain why she was simply a very warm conversationalist. plus i felt as if i was always on a conquest with her. I was trying to live up to her standards, which are unusually high. only one person has ever lived up to what she expects for humanity... but that guys dead. so she suspects he was given a boost out of grievance and respect for his memory. either way he must have been a great guy.
the person i was closest with was amanda/manda/’manda/amanther. these are all various renditions of the manda experience. she was undoubtedly the other half of my “two person clique.” we went down to philly together to attend the Live Aid concert(the largest human gathering in the history of the world). it was a concert to raise awareness of poverty and desperation in africa(go do something now people... then come back and finish reading this post). it took place in 9 cities around the globe simultaneously. it had tons of big acts(thanks manda for inviting me): JayZ, Linkin Park, Destiny’s Child, Jars of Clay, Fresh Prince, Stevie Wonder etc... it was awesome! and were pretty sure we had the best seats in the house(we got there 6 hours early... nothing like waking up at 3am for a concert that starts at 12pm). she lives in philly, so she showed me around a bit. it a nice place. corrugate of neighborhoods. and i had a philly cheese-stake. yum. i apologize, this clearly is not enough time to spend on amanda... but we must move forward.
on a similar note, just thought i’d throw this out there. at the beginning of the summer i had a crush on samantha. at the end of the summer, i had a crush on amanda. the funny thing is: i told each one that i had a crush on the other. I was manda’s closest OL friend, thus felt safe confiding in her about my crush on samantha. i was also sam’s closest OL friend, so she was the obvious choice for where to release my crush on amanda. the sad thing is: sam’s had a boyfriend for as long as i’ve known her(his name is matteo and i’m generally a fan) so i wouldn’t dare even attempt to hurt their relationship. plus, their rather in love. they may fight and had some pretty rough patches that summer, but they’re very close, so i don’t think i’d be successful anywho. plus, i felt bad having a crush on this dude’s girlfriend. having a crush on manda was a bit better,but, even more hopeless. i had never met her significant other, so there was absolutely no guilt... but that didn’t mean i’d ever get any progress out of the thing. you see, she was engaged to some guy from back home. oww, burn on me. especially since all my crushes last months and the summer encompassed two crushes... the tail end of my spring/summer crush and the bulk of my summer/fall crush. one... added cruel irony is that i think matteo knows i have/had a crush on his girlfriend. and sometimes i think she knows also. they’re both rather jealous and dedicated folk. so once the jealousy ended(long ago?), they toying began. oh well, its not as if i like her anymore... so what-eva.
we can’t forget a discussion of friends, without bringing up the two lovely OL’s shaily and rachel. i can’t really think of what to say about them(i’ve been writing for much to long now). I can say shaily was/is my other half... but in a completely different way than. it can’t really be explained be we work magically off of each other. in a phrase: “Together we make Shamu.” also it was wierd that as the summer went on she became best friends with my best non-OL friend, sobaika. next, rachel and her wonderfulness. she’s actually going to be staying with me the next few days. she’s been in china for three weeks. i guess i got along with her so well because of my left leaning, hippy loving, west coast-ness. and true, by ‘left leaning’ i mean to say sprinting past the western goal line. we are both very similar on all our political views(and both poly-sci majors at that). so we get along great. she was also one of the two people i knew before OL-hood(the other was sam). we had had classes, clubs, etc. together through out the year.
as has become the norm, most of my OL friends were female. i also hung out with Jay(chill angry kid.. lots of fun). Revered Nick(the coolest guy... that i’ll never hang out with). Loved Alex(we were so in sync at the retreat... then he let his social self shine). And Craig(well, lets just say we had man crushes on each other... while we never hung out - to much time with the girlfriend - at the end of the summer he put my shirt up on his wall... funny kid)
as a closing note on the summer of 2005, i shall make a tribute to Danny. Danny, you rock my socks. Thanks for your girlish, ridiculous, giddy insanity. thanks for all the danny-isms that have infected my vocabulary: little chickens(that’s cute), they love eachother(in cute constipated voice), i feel(why think?). and finally, since your always doubting your femininity, just wanted to let you know your beautiful.. stop worrying about it. you were easily one of the best looking/most female/lady-like chicks around. fair the well my friend, i miss you.
i miss you all actually.... tamu schwoeffermann.
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