Remember when I said I didn’t know what a Pig Roast was going to be like?
Well, now I know. This (above) was the Pig Roast. This past weekend I went to visit my sister at the University of Richmond, while they were having a campus-wide Pig Roast. Unfortunately, this is one of the only photographs I have of the entire event. Want to know why? Because I forgot my camera, that’s why. Gasp. I know.
So, the rest of these pictures, like this one (above) of me and my sister Robbie, I stole from Facebook. Basically, Pig Roast consisted of large quantities of fraternity brothers and sorority girls in sundresses and pearls running from “lodge” to “lodge” (a lodge is the non-live-in fraternity house at Richmond, which does not have live-in houses like my school did). The sororities don’t even have houses or lodges. Robbie told me that her sorority has chapter in just a building on campus. So weird! We weren’t even allowed to let anyone into our chapter room who wasn’t a member of our house.
This was the backyard at one of the houses, but all of them looked pretty much the same. And, of course, had the requisite beer pong table. Right after I joined a sorority, my dad jokingly asked me if it was like Animal House. After thinking about it, I had to tell him – yup, it is exactly like Animal House! And even though I went to a large public school on the West Coast and my sister goes to a small private school on the East Coast…in my own humble opinion, the general frat party experience is the same. The whole thing was like being in a time warp! Just looking at these photographs, I can smell the spilled beer and fresh cut grass (and mud) and hear the lovely country tunes twanging from the speakers (O be still, my heart!). But, the weather was beautiful – sunny and breezy – and everyone was lovely and friendly.
The girls who lived on my sister’s floor were all very sweet. And so young and innocent! I can’t believe my friends and I were ever that young! I spent a considerable amount of time with them, because my sister also had to attend a French Film Festival in downtown Richmond this past weekend (she is a French minor; it was required) so while she was off at the festival, I hung out with her roommate and floor-mates. And can I just say….oh. my. goodness. I forgot how crazy college freshmen are. My mouth was hanging open with shock at what I was hearing for much of the weekend – and I went to W.S.U., okay. The school about which someone once said, “Why is Washington State University not ranked amongst the top 10 party schools? Because they don’t rank the professionals with the amateurs.” But I could not even repeat much of what I overheard this weekend because I would be mortified if any of my family members read it!
That being said, however, the weekend definitely brought back fond memories of spending time with my own sorority sisters and dorm roommates when I was a freshmen in college. There is such a sense of hope and excitement in your first year. By the time you hit junior year, that hope is replaced with a hint of desperation and fear. I think it is because when you are a freshmen, you haven’t screwed anything up irrevocably yet. You still have time to change your major, or dump that loser boyfriend, or join the college newspaper, or explore new options. Everything is still shiny and new.
[Note: In the above photograph, note that I am the only one drinking an alcoholic beverage because I am the only adult of legal drinking age. Underage college students do not drink alcohol.]
They served pulled pork sandwiches along big tables in front of the fraternities, along with baked beans, cole slaw, the usual trappings. I didn’t actually try the pork, but the cornbread was awesome. (You know, me and my carbs.)
It was very strange for me to be experiencing the college “scene,” if you will, from the far side of college. Don’t get me wrong – I love my post-college life and I would never, ever want to go back to that lifestyle. While I watched frat boys chugging Bud Light around me, I realized that stability and maturity appeal to me far more now than fly-by-the-seat-of-the-pants crazy “fun.” But at the same time, it still is somewhat sad to realize that I won’t ever again have that combination of excitement at the world of opportunities at my fingertips and the lack of any real responsibility. (It also makes me wax nostalgic for the days when I easily fit into a pair of 00-sized blue jeans. I wouldn’t mind having that again. Sigh.)
