What are we talking about today?

I'll get back to theme days once I find a groove of posting regularly. In the meantime, most of my posts are about some variation of books, bikes, buses, or Broadway. Plus bits about writing, nonprofits, and grief from time to time.

This blog is mostly lighthearted and pretty silly. It's not about the terrible things happening in the world, but please know that I'm not ignoring those things. I just generally don't write about them here.

24 August 2010

Eager Freshgirl and the Campus Tour of Oddity

There was a girl on the campus tour who kept making me giggle. And not in a kind way, I'm afraid.

Despite my recent complaints, I really am all about people being engaged and interested. I don't mind asking questions about things I don't understand. (I really, really love people who like to say "There are no dumb questions," because I call that a fun challenge.) I'm a non-traditional student, for goodness' sakes, and we are renowned for our ability to annoy others with our comments and questions.

Questions like, "How old is this building?" or "Where can I find (insert search term here)?" or "What do you mean when you say 'FAC'?" are all legitimate campus-tour questions. You know what isn't a legitimate question? "Why is our mascot a Longhorn, anyway? That's kind of strange." It seems to me if you have already gone through the entire application and acceptance process and are preparing to move in the next day to start class the following week, you could probably have already found the answer to this question. And as our tour guides very tolerantly pointed out, this is Texas; longhorns are actually not an unusual sight.

Sigh. Poor Eager Freshgirl. The sight of her sprinting (in 100-degree heat, mind you) to the front of the group every time we moved from one place to another so she could be right next to the tour guides when we stopped had already caught my attention. I had already asked Chad, "What do you think; drama kid or home school?" (Sorry, drama kids and home schoolers, but those are the ones who tend to draw attention to themselves their first week at university.)

I did not find out Eager Freshgirl's origins, because experience has also shown me that saying, "Hey, are you home schooled?" is not considered a polite opening sentence in most circles. And being that she is a Freshgirl, it's not likely that I'll see her again. Ach, well.

Tonight, I'm Going To Texas. It's going to be fun. :)

2 comments:

Amy said...

As a drama kid/homeschooled kid, I would wager that she is a National Honor Society/Band Geek/Student Council type. Also? She probably was the youngster of her graduating class.

Su said...

I was a drama/band geek/Student Council type, too. However, youngest in her class had not crossed my mind, although it seems likely now that you mention it.

I still think homeschool, though, because homeschoolers are usually pretty comfortable in their surroundings, even when other people are feeling awkward or out of place. And she was definitely comfortable enough to ask all sorts of questions when nobody else wanted to speak up (even though some of her questions were off-the-wall).