On a recent Saturday night, a few girlfriends and I decided to make the brave pilgrimage out to the Fraternity Quad – you will understand why this deserves the title of pilgrimage when you make the trip from Phase and must pass through the wind tunnel that is the Phase bridge.
As I was walking in my fabulous but incredibly uncomfortable green pointy Steve Madden heels, I thought back to my freshman year when I used to happily run to the Frat Quad every weekend. I went out in rain, snow and one time in the snow while dressed as a surfer with swimsuit and all.
I suppose you could call it hard core dedication to having a social life. I figured if I attended enough parties I would eventually meet that one special guy and we would catch each other’s eye across a crowded room and the rest would be history. Well, that never happened because most fraternity parties are either too crowded to make eye contact with someone for too long before being pushed by the crowd, take place in the dark with black lights or it is just physically impossible to get to your target person because the girl in front of you has decided this is the night to have her very first public drunken emotional break down.
However, during freshman year, the prospect of meeting any new potential crush was just so exciting that there was always reason to go out.
Now, at the ripe old age of 22, just sitting in my common room with a few friends and a glass of wine or two seems a lot more tempting than venturing out to a party, and to quote Vince Vaughn in “Wedding Crashers,” “getting hopped up enough to make some bad decisions.” For some reason, the prospect of going to a crowded party and being forced to sweatily grind-up against some wasted dude just doesn’t possess the rustic charm it once did.
Are we growing up or have we simply lost our mojo?
As I enter the final weeks of my time here at UR, I wonder if it is even worth it to pursue that guy who I have been occasionally flirting with at senior nights. I mean, where can it go?
I guess though sometimes it is okay to participate in things and not know what is going to happen. So maybe there is some excitement in my life left and I should put in the effort of wearing the uncomfortable shoes and push-up bra. I guess I still do have a few good years left.
Lepore can be reached at
mlepore@campustimes.org.
