The energy was pulsing both inside and outside the Alumni Memorial Union Friday night. Friends old and new bopped from corner to corner exploring the events planned to keep them busy and involved. Yet, no matter the distractions, there remained an inescapable, awkward tension in the air.
Every year, the thrill and exhaustion of moving in produces both cringe-worthy and exciting memories for new faces on campus. The ones that make the best stories, though, are most certainly the cringe-worthy.
For some students, embarrassment ensued before they even settle into their dorm. Brianna Foti, a freshman in the College of Health Sciences, only needed to hit a bump in the sidewalk with her move-in cart for bad luck to find her.
“My clothes were all in garbage bags, and then all of a sudden they slid into the middle of the street,” Foti said.
She added that the funniest part of the scramble was her mom inexplicably yelling, “Save yourself!” As Foti struggled to pull the bags out of harm’s way. Indeed, it was a parent-supplied cherry on top of an all-around awkward moment.
Other students were at least able to make it into their residence halls before disaster struck.
“Well, I definitely set off the fire alarm in (Humphrey Hall),” Annamarie Cappetto, a sophomore in the College of Business Administration, said. “I went down the wrong set of stairs and then had to run down and tell the (desk receptionist) to turn off the alarm. I hadn’t even been moved into my room for two hours.”
While it was not the impression she wanted to make on her first day at Marquette, at least Cappetto didn’t seem to scare any of the hall’s other residents. Yet, Emma Claire Kinnison, a freshman in the College of Engineering, admitted to accidentally doing exactly that.
“When I wake up at home, the first thing I do is throw my covers across the room,” Kinnison said. “But for some reason this morning, I totally forgot that I was sleeping on a loft.” Kinnison smacked both hands on the ceiling with a noise that she said was “so loud (she) swore it woke the people above her up.”
Bad news for the knuckles of Kinnison, but good news for those in Cobeen Hall who might have heard a startling thump early Friday morning – have no fear, there are no ghosts to be found – only freshmen loudly getting used to their surroundings.
Ariana Madson, a freshman in the College of Health Sciences, remembered tripping over a box amidst cramped chaos during move-in day.
“It wasn’t a face plant, though,” Madson said. “It was this weird grapevine across the floor before falling into the arms of both my dad and my roommate’s dad.”
“I was there; I can attest to this,” said Madson’s roommate Natalie Schmaus, a freshman in the College of Nursing. “They both got into a weird squat position trying to break her fall. Everyone was laughing a lot.”
Though some interactions were blatantly humorous, others, left viewers like Alaina Michels, a freshman in the College of Engineering, a little bit more unsettled. “I don’t know if this is funny or sad, but someone dropped their tray in the middle of Schroeder’s dining hall,” she said. “It wasn’t terrible, because everyone started clapping for them, and they seemed to be okay … (but it was) still pretty embarrassing.”
International students faced an even broader set of challenges during orientation, with both cultural differences and the usual college oddities to overcome. Ziyang Fu, a freshman in the College of Communication, said one awkward moment had already transpired in his residence hall.
“On my first day here, I walked into O’Donnell looking for my room,” Fu said. “I finally found my name on one of the doors, but looked above it to see a weird picture that was not me at all. The funny thing, though, is that for a second I thought to myself, ‘Is that what I look like? Is that me?’ It was a small crisis of identity.”
Beyond the walls of dorm rooms or even the edges of campus, new students partaking in Marquette-sponsored events saw some laughably embarrassing moments as well. On the Ignatian Leadership Retreat, hosted by Campus Ministry, Joe Lynch, a freshman in the College of Engineering, had an unfortunate run-in with an overly aggressive opponent in an intense game of ga-ga ball, a variant on dodgeball played in a small, fenced in area that requires a bit more shouting.
Upon being nailed in the crotch by a near-direct shot, Lynch crumpled to the ground in front of the game’s crowd, yet still maintained a sense of humor about it. “It was honestly really funny, even though it hurt at first,” Lynch said.
The chuckles of the night proved to remind us that while orientation horror stories of all kinds have made for some pretty terrible moments, at the end of the day, they make for even better memories.
