I'm somewhere off to the side with black people.
I was sipping my jack and ginger, looking around the room, and listening to the myriad of conversations going on. It’d been a long time since I’d been in a room with so many Cornell people. Had someone not sent me an email that said “Open Bar from 6-7″ in the subject line, the time since I was surrounded by fellow alumni would have extended further. I was taking another sip when some 5’7 slick-haired white dude in a suit with no tie bumped my elbow and nearly caused me to spill my drink and unleash my inner black. He raised his hand to the bartender. “Let me get 3 vodka tonics for the ladies and a Stella for myself.” He felt self-important. He was probably a trader or some sh*t. I was laughing inside because this was an open bar. You’d have thought he was ordering 3 expensive drinks for some models that at night’s end would leave him to go home alone with a pair of dry nuts. He would tell his friends he had sex with all of them.
My boy J was standing nearby. “I can’t believe we went to school with these people,” I said loudly as to not be drowned out by the jappyness and douchery that was so prevalent in the room. “Yeah man. This was Cornell.”
I enjoyed my time in college. It was the best 4 year period I’ve had despite the potholes that were in the road that was my life. I ran track, pledge Omega, and rolled with some of the most known dudes on campus. The parties were great, but the stories the next day were even better — well, for the most part. I remembered when I lived with 8 dudes in a house and how quickly the walls in the living room turned blue from wild parties with intense grinding on the walls. We didn’t get our security deposits back.
I remember living on the first floor right off the living room and how easy it was to pull someone into my air-conditioned oasis. Wet. I remember the chicks that disappeared into rooms, put on shows, then left in the morning like they’d really just been “sleeping.” Yeah right. I also remember the time I got drunk, slept-walked, and woke up in the morning on the 2nd floor next to a bag of trash butt-ass-naked covered by a random blanket. Yeah. That was college. I wouldn’t change a thing in the world about it.
This open bar event reminded me how much of a bubble I lived in even though I was active in the community. I had forgotten about all the wealthy Long Islanders and the sons and daughters of new and old money that went there. The douches in khaki shorts in winter turned out to be the douches in suits on Wall Street in the spring. J and I were amongst the few Black people there. And just like college, we were all standing in our own little groups resembling the cliques that are as much a part of college as sleeping next to someone in a double-sized bed.
What if I went to a party school, another ivy, or an HBCU? What type of person would I be today? By the time time I started asking myself these questions, I was on my third drink. 3 jack and gingers in 30 minutes probably wasn’t the best idea, but with the open bar deadline looming I didn’t have much of a choice. And with the tingle starting to take over, I didn’t feel like thinking deeply anymore.
“Yo J, you ready to be out?”
“Yeah, let’s roll.”
It was just like we were leaving another white frat party when the beer ran out. I went home and ate some pizza. Yeah, it was just like college.
Scholastically,
I went to UM. My senior year of high school and freshman year of college were the most fun I ever had. It feels like another lifetime ago. I was sooo wild. I remember my parents threatened to disown me a few times. I can't even share that sh*t on here. lol and for me that's pretty bad.
I remember partying then going straight to class, sleeping in the library, eat, shower then partying all over again. I survived on power bars, oatmeal, noodles and coffee. It was such an experience. I felt like I was learning more and more about myself and life until I actually entered the real world after college. What a bubble. College was so necessary though. Not just for the degree but for the experience.
I'm presently in a community college in the middle of nowhere so I haven't really had the "college experience" but come fall, it's about to go down lol
Ha! I went to a community college than transfered to a PWI. Yeah going to a community college aint the typical college experience and trust me when you get to a big university and you see the things they do, you aint going to be down with it, well thats what happened to me. Going to a community college forces you to grow up and mature really fast and be on your own. So when I got to my PWI it was really hard for me cause I complained about how immature the students were forgetting that I matured a little faster than them because of my community college experience. Good Luck this fall.
So you didn't become life-long friends with any of the douche bags? If you'd gone to one of the good HBCU's, you would have an unreasonable love for your school. When you went to alumni functions, you'd stay past the open bar. You'd be several decades away from graduation and you'd still make a special effort to have some sort of alumni sticker on your car. It's that serious.
I knew it was only a matter of time.lol.
I wanted to respond to this in detail, but I realized you were just expressing how you felt about the college experience. I'll just say that I do have/did all those things. It just happens to be that my strongest relationships were with people in the black community.
I hear this from a lot of ppl who went to PWI's. I probably wouldn't have done well in that environment cus I'd mess around and be that Black chick who had equal numbers of Black and white friends. Then the Black folks woulda gotten mad/suspicious and kicked me out of the group.
Boooooo
If Slim went to an HBCU he would probably be making 20K less per year. Also why would he want to be friends with a douche bag. Why does every one assume white people are the only douche bags? There are black douche bags that he doesn’t talk to and I am sure HBCU have douche bags, just look for the greeks.
But if you really think your school is better, I know how we can settle this once and for all: Beer Pong
Interesting I'm graduating from a PWI in a week. And my strongest relationship is my best friend who is white. Not that I didn't kick it with Black folks, I did. We would party and have a blast and I was apart of all the black orgs (three total) on campus.
But when it came to talking about personal matters my best was there and I trusted her way more than any of my Black friends. I learnt early on that the Black students on my campus was so divide that it pissed me off and made me want to transfer after two weeks of college. Couldn't believe that Black folks could be so divided because of social class. But I understand where you coming from, going to college is a challenge but going to PWI adds a whole different challenge.
I've always thought about how my college experience would have differed if instead I went to an HBCU instead of a predominately white school. I always thought I wouldn't fit in at an HBCU because I was a nerd and so "different." I didn't even apply to any. Sometimes I wish i had, just for the experience, but the school I chose wasn't so bad.