We’ve all had plenty of times when we’ve said, “this is the best day ever.” But what about those days we wish we could forget (but somehow always seem to come back and haunt us)? College brings so many new experiences- the good, the bad and the ugly. Here are the top five days we all are trying to put behind us.
Snooze, please.
The morning your alarm didn’t go off: You normally wake up each morning, and it’s still dark outside. You drag yourself across campus every morning with each step heavier than the last, relying solely upon your newest Pandora playlist to keep you rhythmically stumbling to class.
But not this morning. As you’re just leaning in to kiss Ashton Kutcher in the dream you’d never forget, you’re awoken to the sound of your roommate’s engine revving out your window. You slowly roll over and glance at the clock only to see the 8:40 a.m. time pierce you with a stab of anxiety. The adrenalin instantly kicks in and you jump out of your bed and throw on tennis shoes before you can say “This can’t be real life!”
By the time you burst through the doors of the classroom just a few minutes later, the class is already a ghost town. “Well, it’s just one class,” you think to yourself. Everything will be all right. That is… until your lab partner texts you, “What did you think about the pop quiz today?” Of course, the ONE day you miss class.
If you haven’t been there, you will. I know I have. I woke up late on the day of a group presentation in my PR class. Had the track coach seen me running to campus that day, I would have surely been the team’s newest recruit!
2. The day after hosting your first party: It’s amazing how creative freshman can be when finally given the independence they’ve longed for throughout high school. The two twin beds have suddenly become makeshift couches, and the desks have turned into poker tables and beverage stations (i.e. beer pong tables, for those of legal drinking age of course).
As the iPod shuffles from 80’s classics to the latest cool songs (Black and Yellow anyone?) the party expands out of the small 10×10 room and into the hallway of the fifth floor. You are just about to text your best friend from high school with the crucial update your night when suddenly you see the cutie from math class across the room. Next you thing you know you’re heading to the dance floor and pop, lock and dropping the night away.
Not every name was remembered, but those that were recollected were searched on Facebook the next day. After a morning of eating breakfast in bed (two strawberry Poptarts, the breakfast of champions) and lounging around, you finally muster the energy to circumnavigate the area. The trail of solo cups leads you to a pile of trash left behind from late-night munching. Your new desktop organizer is in pieces on the floor, and a mysterious sticky substance covers your backpack that you mistakingly left on the floor.
Where your roommate snuck off to is anybody’s guess, so you’re left to spend time with Mr. Clean and a Swiffer mop. Note to self: Go to parties, beware of hosting them.
I am invisible. I am invisible...
3. When Steve turned on you: You babysat annoying little 5 and 6-year olds all summer to save up for spending money this semester. When your mom took you shopping for last-minute essentials you found the boots you knew you couldn’t live without. Better yet, they were on sale. It’s a sign, clearly meant to be. On an ordinary Tuesday afternoon you head to class in the perfect ensemble, plotting conversation starters for the cute guy you sometimes sit next to.
It’s a rainy afternoon, but you grab your umbrella and trot along like you’re on the top of the world. You get to class right in the nick of time and after spotting your crush near the front, quickly head down that way when all of a sudden the spring in your step turns into the busting of your bootie as you miss the last stairstep. Darn lecture halls and their slippery linoleum floors. Darn Steve Madden for selling you boots with a sole without proper grip.
Your iPod goes flying and your backpack spewed its surroundings into the surrounding seats. If you haven’t been there, you’re lucky. My advice? Rainboots with heavy gripping on rainy days, because trust me, the embarrassment of being “the girl that tripped before class” is not worth the price for cute shoes.
Spotted: Your crush crushing on someone else
4. The night you saw your crush… with someone else: You thought you’d never make it through another boring anthropology lecture, until you got your first group assignment. Conveniently, you were partnered with a bunch of overachieving nerds and none other than a stranger with a cute smile. As the weeks roll by you exchange numbers and beginning hanging out to do more than just homework. He’s invited you out with his friends and bought you Starbucks between classes, and all is well… until the night you saw him coming out of the movie theatre holding hands with a gorgeous blonde.
You hide behind your group of girls still comparing favorite parts of the movie to make sure you don’t have to face an awkward encounter. So much for having a sweetheart on Valentine’s Day!
5. The night you got lost downtown: Playboy didn’t rank UT as the top party school in the nation for nothing, and they couldn’t have said it better. In the April 2010 issue, Playboy writes, “When you add up academics, the weather, the liberal atmosphere, South by Southwest, game day and the nightlife on Sixth Street, UT Austin is one heck of a school.”
When your new friends invite you downtown for the first time, you plan the night to a T- from your hot, new outfit to the mental checklist of clubs you absolutely must make an appearance at. You’re on your way out the door when your roommate offers to carry your essentials in her clutch. Perfect, another hand free to bust a move on the dance floor. As you step out of the cab and into a swarm of eclectic, drunk and all-around crazy people you get a quick head-count and make your way into the nearest entrance. Two clubs later your friend is dancing on the bar, and another is waiting in the never-ending line for the women’s bathroom. When a cute stranger offers to buy you a drink, you head over to a quiet (i.e. not next to the blaring speakers) corner of the room to mingle. It’s obviously the economical decision to make, after all your friend still has your purse anyways. Speaking of which…
Suddenly you scan the crowd and don’t see your friends anywhere. You’re left with no phone, no ID and no credit card. After a mini panic attack you dart (as fast as your stilettos will let you) out into the commotion of Sixth Street in hopes of a familiar face. Nope, just “guidos” wearing Ed Hardy and creepy older men. Where are the normal college students?
The directions you took down earlier about the E-bus locations is now a vague memory, and you don’t have any of of your new friends’ numbers memorized yet. There’s no way you’re about to call your mom three hours away to help you, so you know you’re on your own for this one.
After a 16-block walk home, you’re lucky to have made it safely. You had never been so happy to see the aged brown building you now call home. You crash in a friend’s room down the hall for the night, after learning a lesson every college student faces at some point: You have to be responsible for yourself in these new situations. Many influences will tempt you into not-so-wise decisions, but you’re smart enough to know better. That’s why you go to one of the best schools in the country after all!
Sixth Street, Austin
What days of your college career will you never forget? Leave me a comment or visit my Facebook to share your unforgettable stories!
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