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Archive for wahoowa
July 31, 2007 at 3:36 pm · Filed under wahoowa, people
Less Than Jake sings a song titled “The Science of Selling Yourself Short”, which is really too fitting for me. I feel like the song title describes the story of my life. In general, I’m not a very loud person, and I don’t usually toot my own horn very much. Sometimes I wonder if I really err too much on the side of being too quiet about my accomplishments and end up selling myself short.
I was at something recently where the whole string of events just bothered me. It was at an alumni event, and as much as I still love Virginia, the longer I am out of college, the more I feel like the whole place was just a giant hairball of pretentiousness. Inevitably, because of the presence of young alums, the Lawn came up in conversation. So-and-so attending the event got called out as “oh, see her over there, she lived on the Lawn, too!” And the next person. And the next person. Until a group of former Lawnies all gathered together and shared the funniest stories from their respective years living on the grassy knoll.
Of course I felt left out. No one brought me up; no one even knew about me. I guess I could have easily said, “Hey guys, wait a minute. I lived there, too. Don’t forget me! I applied, got chosen, and then went and became Head Resident! Me! Me! I need reaffirmation of my worth as measured in Lawnie-status, too!”
Of course I didn’t say that. I really wanted to. In the end, I said nothing and just chit-chatted with the rest of the people, listening politely to the Lawn stories that were told. Before long, the conversation topic shifted, and the whole episode was forgotten. For me though, I still kept wondering just why was it that I always inevitably feel like I sold myself short, and furthermore, why is it that others do the same to me, too?
August 15, 2006 at 5:02 pm · Filed under wahoowa
Every so often, I see wedding and engagement pictures of friends, or get sent his-and-her accounts of proposals, and when the couple are both virginia grads, I’m jealous. I think about how these couples will return for reunions both ecstatic to be back at their alma maters, both reminescing the good ol’ days at Virginia, both nostalgic about first dates on the downtown mall, 21st birthdays on the corner, romantic strolls around the lawn, dancing the virginia reel at the balls …
The proposal stories of scavenger hunts in the pavilion gardens, of popping the question in front of the Rotunda, of rings hidden in front of particular lawn rooms … all of these make me wish that I had me a Virginia gentleman, too.
Am I unusual in how attached I am to Virginia? So much so that I want a UVA boy too? I had the best four years of my life at Virginia, and I want someone who would understand why. But more than anything, I want someone who can share the joy with me of going to Charlottesville year-after-year-after-year, someone who would know the special meaning of 26 East, someone who would dress our kids in orange and blue, and someone who would know to get down on one knee in a seersucker suit on the terrace of the Rotunda on a beautiful spring day with the scent of blossoms all around us.
*sigh* oh well. too late now :)
Remembering the purple shadows of the lawn, the majesty of the colonnades, and the dream of your youth, you may say in reverence and thankfulness:
“I have worn the honors of Honor, I graduated from Virginia”
- The Honor Men by James Hay, Jr.
March 12, 2006 at 12:25 am · Filed under wahoowa
Just about every other school in Virginia likes to bash UVA kids for being “pretentious” and “snobs”. In other words, they get called out for thinking they are better than everyone else. Well, if you went to the school in Virginia with the most stringent admissions requirements, best overall athletic program, most beautiful campus and coeds, most successful and famous alumni, the most storied social scence, was founded by Thomas Jefferson, and all that happened to be in what was voted the #1 city to live in America, well you’d think you were the shit too.
– Ian Cohen, football analyst
huh-zaa.
February 3, 2006 at 1:41 am · Filed under wahoowa
Walking home late at night today, I saw a couple of people playing frisbee golf (aka frolf) by Kresge. My mind raced back to first year, when Paul and I sat on that picnic table on a random night until the paper boy came, talking about everything and nothing all at once, including the awesome frolf course we found on a random 3rd year’s public directory. We promised each other that we would play the 18 holes at least once before we graduate. Graduation seemed so impossibly far away then.
Today, two years after Graduation, I see a couple of kids throwing frisbees at trees in the dark, and all I can think about is that night before the ECE204 final when we were studying at Clemons Library with Philip, Clement, and some other folks. All Paul and I could talk about was the frolf course we randomly found 1st year. All Philip could talk about was the “Particle Man” lyrics I had written for him on his scratch paper. All anyone else could talk about was how crazy Paul and I were to want to play frisbee golf at 3 o’clock in the morning, and would we please shut up so that they can study and go to bed. I still regret not having ditched out on Clemons that night for frisbee golf. It wasn’t as if all the “studying” did me any good anyhow.
Sadly, that night was the last chance we had to play that frolf course. Construction crews soon went crazy around Grounds, digging huge 5-story pits in the ground while building new libraries, new stadiums, new dining halls, new everything. Over half of the landmarks on the 18-hole frolf course became either inaccessible or completely demolished. Even the first hole tee-off on the Webb lawn got swallowed by that monstrosity of an OHill.
Regardless, what I wouldn’t give to switch places with those two frisbee-throwing kids I saw tonight. The tiny little memories like these, triggered at the most random moments, are what makes me miss Virginia the most.
This good ol’ song of Wahoowa
We’ll sing it o’er and o’er
It cheers our hearts and warms our blood
To hear them shout and roar
We come from ol’ Virginia
Where all is bright and gay
Let’s all join hands and give a yell
For dear ol’ UVA
Wahoowa! Wahoowa!
Uni-V, Virginia
Hoorah ray, hoorah ray!
Ray ray, UVA
February 2, 2006 at 1:00 am · Filed under wahoowa
Being especially spaced out this week, I procrastinated a lot and started reading the Cavalier Daily again. Before last summer, I used to read this once a day, just to keep on top of things happening back at ol’ Virginia. So what did I learn this week from the cav daily?
1) Being my narcissistic self, one of the first things I did was to search for myself. I found 4 articles on the Lawn, 1 article about giving blood, and 1 article that I wrote as a “staff writer” back during my 2nd year when I thought writing for a paper would be fun … It is a bit sad and ironic that the “biggest” mark I left on the University as reflected by the Cav Daily is my having been Head Resident on the Lawn, something of which I am not exactly proud.
2) The paper got a new exec board this week … I hope these five will write better lead edits. There was a time when I lived for the lead edits, never ending a day without reading it. That was back when Tom Bednar was Editor-in-Chief. After his managing board, the quality of the lead edits became pretty much non-existent.
3) A few Honor Committee folks want to propose a bill that would make the seriousness clause a separate condition voted on by Committee members after a student jury convicts on act and intent … I think this is a great idea to add some consistency to verdicts. I also don’t buy the argument that doing this would take power away from the students; Honor Committee members are students, too. If anything, I would WANT the Committee members to be the ones deciding my fate because they are more experienced, and know more about what generally constitutes an Honor offense and what does not. But maybe this is just my biased opinion.
4) For the life of me, I can’t think of where Wilson Hall is … This made me really sad because I realized that I no longer know Grounds like the back of my hand. Add this to the fact that when Paul mentioned Carmello’s today, I had to ask him where that was. I feel a greater sense of detachment everyday from Mr. Jefferson’s University.
5) The Cavalier Daily is leaps and moon-jumps above the Tech, both in print and online. In fact, the Cav Daily is truly one of the best college papers in the country.
January 12, 2006 at 1:28 am · Filed under wahoowa
paulbui (1:23:01 AM): buhhhhhhhhhhhhh
wahooswu (1:23:16 AM): hmm … are you drunk?
paulbui (1:23:23 AM): of course!
paulbui (1:23:30 AM): wed night at maarten’s
wahooswu (1:23:37 AM): what’s there on wed nights?
paulbui (1:23:37 AM): pitcher of killians for $5
wahooswu (1:23:41 AM): woah dude
paulbui (1:23:48 AM): yeah, I killed a pitcher+
paulbui (1:24:02 AM): where you headed off to?
wahooswu (1:24:07 AM): bed
paulbui (1:24:24 AM): why aren’t you out?
wahooswu (1:24:31 AM): had work to do
paulbui (1:24:43 AM): yeah, I should be doing that too
paulbui (1:25:14 AM): but I’ll hold that off until tuesday
paulbui (1:25:22 AM): i mean fgriday
paulbui (1:25:23 AM): shit
paulbui (1:25:29 AM): I typed the completely wrong day
January 5, 2006 at 5:35 pm · Filed under life thoughts, wahoowa
I was a Lawn Resident my fourth year at UVA. In fact, I was the Head Resident on the Lawn. What is the meaning of this, you ask? Did I sleep in a tent on a grassy knoll every night? No. Well, I must have had my own special chair, one of those high-back Adirondacks, on a courtyard, right? Wrong. Being “on the Lawn” meant that I lived in a matchbox single room with ancient electrical wiring. I walked outside to use the bathroom, even in the middle of the night (though some may choose to argue this point). During the winters, I tread through 4 inches of snow in my bathrobe and flipflops to get to the showers. When it wasn’t winter, I endured the embarrassment (or was it glory and pride?) of walking through high-traffic zones with wet, freshly-shampooed hair wearing my plush, terry-cloth robe, bought expressly for that purpose.
So what is this Lawn?
The Lawn is a pivotal concept without which undergraduate life at UVA would be worlds apart from what it is today. The Lawn pits students against each other extracurricularly from the moment they step on Grounds. It feuds a competition to see who can rack up the most credentials outside of the classroom while still keeping a decently high GPA. It plants seemingly life-or-death goals in students’ minds as they each strive to gain his/her peers’ highest ratings on the fuzzy criteria of “significant contributions to the University community.” All in the name of one letter, mailed from the housing office, that reads “Congratulations! You are one of 47 distinguished students selected to live on the Lawn.”
So, why do I bring this up now?
Recently, I was asked by a fellow 2004 Lawn resident to dig up information on a girl, our year, who claimed to have received a “congratulations” letter, but ultimately never lived on the Lawn because she turned down the offer before the school year began. My friend suspected that this girl was lying, but had no proof, so he checked with me, the Head Resident. The girl was lying.
As good little graduates of the University all know, lying is an Honor offense that leads to automatic expulsion. But what is the meaning of lying about the Lawn AFTER graduating? Or even better, what is the meaning of the Lawn itself after graduating?
In all honesty, the Lawn means nothing after UVA. Non-Virginians laugh and laugh about the idea of “sleeping in someone’s front yard”. Furthermore, the whole concept of intense extracurricular competition so engrained in us wahoos means about as much as German sausages to everyone else: foreign, and probably bad for your health when ingested in large quantities.
So what changed about the Lawn after we graduated that demoted it from “this means the whole world to me” to “this means nothing at all” in a mere year or two? The tiny rooms are still there, with its brick exteriors, cobwebs, and a different set of over-achieving residents inside.
So, why does it feel different?
It feels different because we have lost the context of the Lawn. Some meanings are universal, no doubt: lying means doing something wrong, or having a cold means not feeling so great for a few days. Most things, however, only have meanings in context. Honor is vague in the minds of most, but Honor means precisely “no lying, cheating, or stealing” to Virginia students and alums. NASA means the space agency to most Americans, but for a select group, it may mean the Native American Student Association. For just about everyone, the lawn is what you hire the neighbor’s son to mow, but the Lawn is the Holy Grail of achievements at UVA. How we interpret the context around us is important, as is finding the context for which our thoughts are even relevant. That seems obvious enough, no astrophysics degree needed here. (At this point, I’m almost tempted to launch into something on the Tipping Point’s third rule: Power of Context. But I shall refrain in the interest of length.)
So where am I going with this?
To generalize, and at the risk of sounding terribly obvious: we find the meanings for things around us in our surroundings. Most things lose their significance given a different context, which really should not come as a surprise. I think what I have failed to understand until very recently is how incredibly universal this idea is. (Oh the irony: the universality of specific context.) As my mother always says: 退一步，海阔天空。 Literally, it means to “take a step back, the sea and the sky are expansive”. Contexually, it means to take a step back, see the big picture. Taking a step back and seeing the big picture has made all the difference for me in 2005: helping me to go from “I am so f-ing miserable, I want another life” to “I can live with this; this really isn’t so bad.” The universal meanings are still there, and always will be: life goes on; but the contextual meanings are only what I make of them. Not everything can, or should, be trivialized, but just about everything can be contexualized so we can forgive ourselves a little more than we have been allowing ourselves to.
With that, here’s to 2006: the year of opportunities, of meanings, and when put into the right context: the year of the dog!
December 8, 2005 at 12:26 am · Filed under wahoowa
Instead of studying for my french test, I started to look through all of the folders in My Documents on my desktop. Stumbled on some priceless quotes from those good ol’ eschool days:
Spence: i think engineering frats have gender confusion because the girls are still considered brothers
Brad: but really it’s only the girls who are confused because they think they are boys…
Spence: yeah but the boys are confused too because they look at the girls and think the girls are boys and then they’d be confused about what they are themselves. Wouldn’t you think that’d be a dysfunctional family?
brad: Every time an albino whale breaches, it sunburns. it’s like, is that a whale or a giant tomato??
vince: yeah! like, a tomato is a vegetarian version of a whale!
valter: come to think of it, almost all animals in africa are poisonous
me: even giraffes?
valter: only if you kiss them
me: yeah… if it were a date, i just simultaneously cheated on 3 different guys all at the same time with all of them present
philip: I knew you were good
gordon: star trek:nemesis is b-a-d, bad. if you TLBed it, it’d just come out bad, like it would be hard-wired to bad
(I guess this is only funny if you know what TLBs are.)
me: so why are you so happy vince?
jess: vince exchanged url’s with a girl
vince: yeah, she SO gave me her universal resource locator
December 6, 2005 at 9:32 pm · Filed under wahoowa, people
Tonight, while navigating the backstreets of downtown Boston/financial/district/”I didn’t really know where I was between Downtown Crossing and Park Street”, I got approached FOUR times for directions from random people. Was it a coincidence? Four times is a lot of times in 10-15 minutes. Do I, in general, look less intimidating and more approachable than the other people in the streets? I’m thinking that this probably isn’t a good thing, considering the fact that I was walking around by myself along sketchy, narrow, dark streets further darkened by humongously tall office buildings. Maybe I need to work on looking tougher.
As to why I was down there in the first place, I was reading applications from Boston-area candidates as a part of the Jefferson Scholars Boston Regional Selection Committee. I happened to meet the chair of the committee back in October at a cocktail party down at the Harbor Hotel. It turned out that the committee was looking for some fresh faces. I guess I looked fresh enough and managed to shimmy my way in.
I found it fascinating being on the other side of this process. This year’s application was almost completely different from the one I filled it out 6 years ago, and it freaked me out that one guidance counselor wrote something about recommending the kid for UVA’s Class of 2010. 2010!!! Once again, I felt old. And all these kids got to turn in their application ONLINE! I remember typing, and retyping, my entire application on our school’s typewriter using scratch paper, before finally getting up the nerve to type on the actual scholarship application, and still ended up cursing myself and struggling with the white-out brush. Repeat 10 times for all the other schools and scholarships for which I was applying. Weren’t those the days?
November 27, 2005 at 11:24 pm · Filed under wahoowa
While traveling this Thanksgiving weekend, in typical wahoo fashion, I randomly ran into a fellow Virginia alum. She was even a fellow Jeffie. I really do wonder how it is that all us wahoos keep running into each other. Other instances of run-ins this year documented here and here.
I also caught a bug while traveling to/from home. The minor sore throat yesterday really developed into a full-blown cold today. I am feeling pretty miserable right now. All I want to do is curl up and sleep for days, but there’s so much to be done this coming week …
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