What Colleges Can’t Print in Their Brochures

I had a lot of really cool, viewbook-worthy moments at William & Mary.  I had tea with Lady Margaret Thatcher, formerly Chancellor of the College.  Dr. Henry Kissinger (also a former chancellor) guest lectured one of my classes.  I went to a Sister Hazel concert, a Dave Matthews Band concert and I saw John Stewart (W&M, ’84) perform.  Don’t get me wrong, these were fabulous experiences but they are not the memories that resonate most about my William & Mary experience.  The hallmark of a good college is that great moments happen that aren’t planned and thus cannot be captured in a shiny admission brochure.  When you are surrounded by wonderfully intelligent, engaging, and creative people, just as I was at the College, you will find out what can happen randomly at 2:00 am and it is these memories that make for an unforgettable college experience.  Here are some of the best unplanned moments of my undergraduate tenure at W&M.

• Playing Taboo until 2:30 am with my lodgemates and our boyfriends (yes I was fortunate to live in one of our 7 lodges)
• Playing mud football and slip-n-slide in the Sunken Gardens after a hurricane
• Having a snowball fight with my freshman hallmates
• Singing ’80s karaoke at my boyfriend’s fraternity house
• Triple-mug Mug Night
• Decorating our lodge for the holidays and baking cookies for the Williamsburg mayor who judged the lodge decorating contest (we came in second).  The best part was when my roommate’s boyfriend dangled himself off of the roof to create a Star of David out of lights.  Given that I am Jewish we wanted our lodge to be representative of all of its residents
• Lighting the menorah for Channuakah on the lawn of the Governor’s Palace with my friends before Grand Illumination
• Going to dinner with my freshman seminar professor.  We discussed communism and pop culture.  He addressed everyone by their last name.  To this day, he calls me Ms. Begleiter (my maiden name).
• Nightly human bowling in the attic of my freshman residence hall (we sat on dodgeball scooters and were pushed head first into giant bowling pins)
• Stopping at South of the Border while on spring break.  It is the coolest, tackiest place I have ever seen.  My three girlfiends and I spent hours there laughing hysterically at everything
• Watching every film on AFI’s Top 100 movies of all time with my friend Alex
• Having my friends take me to get tattoos for my quarter-life crisis (when I turned 20)
• Meeting two of my best friends (one in my freshman seminar and another at a fraternity party)
• Taking three of my guy friends with September birthdays out for dinner and watching one order and eat pasta which contained baby octopi
• Having high tea daily with my freshman roommate, her sister, and friends
• Sitting down to watch Ally McBeal with my freshman RA.  We had standing Ally McBeal date every Monday night thereafter.
• Talking to a loud, tattooed, bald man at a fraternity party.  I married him five years later