My college career is going to come down to 100 words. Or so it seems.
I say this because, two weeks ago, I received an email from the Media Studies department asking me to confirm I wanted to walk in their graduation ceremony and if I did — which I do — to submit a 100-word biography to be read at graduation.
Although this request would send any unemployed almost-grad into a rush of panic, I couldn’t help but note the added level of irony — I received the email while working my last shift at the only paid media job I’ve ever had.
As I was driving home, I thought about what I wanted the people in Nau Auditorium on May 19 to remember about my college experience. Well, if I’m being honest, that’s the second thing I thought. The first thing I thought was it would’ve been so much more appropriate for the Media Studies department to have us write 140 characters about ourselves. But I digress.
What I quickly realized was there’s no way someone can learn from 100 words that I was first photographed wearing U.Va. clothing when I was less than a month old. Nor will you learn that, to my father’s dismay, I spent the rest of my youth in Carolina blue.
You won’t learn my Dad gave me a U.Va. sweatshirt for Christmas my freshman year of high school, and that I almost never wore it because I thought there was only one school for me. He told me I could go anywhere, but I had to visit Grounds and take a tour anyway. So on a gray, cold day in January during my junior year of high school, we drove down Route 29 South — a route I now know like the back of my hand — with my two best friends in tow.
Even though all the odds were stacked against Mr. Jefferson’s University, after an information session in the Dome Room of the Rotunda and lunch on the Corner, I never looked back. The stop at Mincer’s for some swag didn’t hurt either.
You won’t learn the first time I discovered the Media Studies department was the summer before my first year, when I was nervously researching college in an attempt to quell late-night anxiety. Even though I now realize it’s the perfect major for me, at the time I was overwhelmed by the number of times “selective” and “small major” were used on the department’s website. At the time I also thought I wanted to go to the Comm School.
You won’t learn that second semester of my first year I took Introduction to Digital Media, and I realized I loved it more than any of my Commerce prerequisites. And you won’t learn as soon as I realized that, I started religiously sitting in the front row of the 200-person lecture hall with the hope the professor would recognize my face, a desperate attempt to rack up brownie points for when I applied to the major the following spring.
You won’t learn I wrote my Media Studies application essay on celebrity autobiographies and how they are increasingly becoming didactic texts we look to for societal guidance. And you definitely won’t learn the number of hours I spent stressing out about that essay.
You won’t learn I found out I was accepted to the Media Studies major while sitting in the basement of Newcomb, designing the 2011 April Fools issue of The Cavalier Daily. I still have that email starred in my Gmail. I didn’t even tell the two graphics editors sitting next to me I was accepted. I felt like I didn’t know them well enough, even though we had gone to a no-pants party together the weekend before.
You won’t learn that my favorite class in college was Media History and not just because of the friendship and memories I made with the boy who sat next to me. You won’t learn that the academic essay I’m most proud of was written about the history of “Cinderella.”
You won’t learn I’ve never pulled an all-nighter at Clemons, but used to go there to read magazines between classes. You won’t learn Pavilion II is my favorite pavilion on the Lawn. You won’t learn about my first college beer, or that I’ve only missed three Survivor Hours at the Biltmore this year — though maybe I should’ve considered including that fact. You won’t learn I always order a Free Bird at Littlejohn’s or that I play Mellow Mushroom trivia every Wednesday and that I’ve won. Twice.
Instead, if you’re in Nau Auditorium that day in May, you’ll learn 35 of my peers and I were lucky and smart enough to have chosen a major that wants to make graduation a personal experience. You’ll learn the summary of my internship and extracurricular experiences — though don’t worry, it’ll probably be much better written than my current LinkedIn summary. And you’ll definitely learn how much I love college and how it pains me to leave the majesty of the colonnades and purple shadows of the Lawn.
I hope the people in Nau Auditorium realize you can’t learn from 100 words about all the little things which, when combined, made my college experience the chain of glory days it was — or at least that it seems.
Katie’s column runs biweekly Tuesdays. She can be reached at k.urban@cavalierdaily.com.
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