Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Reed tradition
Reed is full of ridiculous traditions. For example, off campus students who don't have meal plans are called "scroungers". They stand by this ledge and wait with a fork ready for on-campus students with meal plans to give them their leftovers. Now, one might argue that this is a good way to get sick--after all, about 85% of the campus is sick at any time--but who cares about germs in college anyway?
This phenomonon resulted in the 70s in people making trading cards of notorious scroungers. Apparently, a few years ago, some students ressurected this. So, in the library currently, there is a display of scrounger trading cards (or at least there was a couple weeks ago).
Reedies that are children of Reedies are called ORGYs: Offspring of Reed Graduates of Yesteryear. The admission office calls them this. I am entirely serious.
There are notorious elected positions. One of my friends was elected the Pope of Reed College last year. Apparently his duty is to bless people and run around in a pope costume during Renn Fayre (this huge culiminating celebration at the end of the year).
We have something called the Doyle Owl, which is this huge owl gargoyle that apparently used to sit on top of one of the dorms. There is a lot of lore about how it arose, but essentially, it keeps getting stolen and transported to different areas of the country. Once it showed up on Ebay. When it breaks, phys plant makes a new one out of the Doyle Owl mold. If you are lucky, you might get a chance to scramble and touch it at some point in your Reed carreer.
We also have a club called RKSK: Reed Kommunal Shit Kollektiv. Essentially, they run around and paint red sickles on "kommie" things--childrens bikes, stuffed animals, people--and the entire campus is allowed to use said things (well, besides the people...). Thusly, the library is cushioned with kommie cuddly animals, and the childrens bikes serve as great vehicles for spur of the moment races across the Blue Bridge (which connects dorms that are cross canyon to the main campus area. It is called the Blue Bridge, because it is always lit with blue lights).
Reed is an academically rigorous place. Reed likes to thrive on its stress culture that is largely self-induced. Reed is a silly place. Reed is a place where people know how to have fun in their own sort of way. Reed is a place for rich hippies who have never had to work in their life to have their left wing Marxist protests. But all in all, it's impossible to describe it accurately, because although it fits the stereotype for an ultra liberal liberal arts niche school, it is so entrenched in its own traditions and its own certain atmosphere, that I don't think you can really understand Reed unless you are a student or staff here. Which makes it sound cultish, for sure. It kind of is. And I like it that way.
I'm suprised by the amount of underlying pragmatism that lies within this idealistic student body. There are more pre-meds and more people thinking about going to law school or buisness school than you'd think. For all that we pretend to be liberal hippies right now, I think most of us know that someday we will grow up and be responsible yuppies. There's an inner acknowledgement of this--even though we don't see our grades, even though we are here to learn.
I still feel very strongly that I would like to go to medical school someday, but I'm never 100% sure that that will be my path in life. I think I would definitely like to consider staying in academia, particularly a place that is rooted more in pedagogy than in research, because I think the biological sciences are something that a lot of people get turned off to because they see it as strictly memorization and don't see how it conceptually fits together. I'd like to instill the excitement that former biology teachers instilled in me in young people, perhaps. Or I think I might want to be a science writer. Who knows--I'm only a freshman in college; I have time.
I think what high school made me realize was how important academics are to me--how much learning in general facinates me, and how scared I was to feel like I might be put in an environment where people weren't on the same page as me. Reed is not a utopia in those regards. There are Reedies who are hypercompetitive. There are Reedies who are here more for its liberal reputation than its academic reputation. But overall, it's a pretty damn good place to find people who love academics. And academics of all types--whether it is chemistry or classics or music.
I got my hum paper back, and it was pretty covered in blue ink, there was a lot of criticism, but at the end my conference leader wrote "very well done!" That's gotta be a good sign!
Okay, well, I have work to do. Is this enough of an update for you guys?
This phenomonon resulted in the 70s in people making trading cards of notorious scroungers. Apparently, a few years ago, some students ressurected this. So, in the library currently, there is a display of scrounger trading cards (or at least there was a couple weeks ago).
Reedies that are children of Reedies are called ORGYs: Offspring of Reed Graduates of Yesteryear. The admission office calls them this. I am entirely serious.
There are notorious elected positions. One of my friends was elected the Pope of Reed College last year. Apparently his duty is to bless people and run around in a pope costume during Renn Fayre (this huge culiminating celebration at the end of the year).
We have something called the Doyle Owl, which is this huge owl gargoyle that apparently used to sit on top of one of the dorms. There is a lot of lore about how it arose, but essentially, it keeps getting stolen and transported to different areas of the country. Once it showed up on Ebay. When it breaks, phys plant makes a new one out of the Doyle Owl mold. If you are lucky, you might get a chance to scramble and touch it at some point in your Reed carreer.
We also have a club called RKSK: Reed Kommunal Shit Kollektiv. Essentially, they run around and paint red sickles on "kommie" things--childrens bikes, stuffed animals, people--and the entire campus is allowed to use said things (well, besides the people...). Thusly, the library is cushioned with kommie cuddly animals, and the childrens bikes serve as great vehicles for spur of the moment races across the Blue Bridge (which connects dorms that are cross canyon to the main campus area. It is called the Blue Bridge, because it is always lit with blue lights).
Reed is an academically rigorous place. Reed likes to thrive on its stress culture that is largely self-induced. Reed is a silly place. Reed is a place where people know how to have fun in their own sort of way. Reed is a place for rich hippies who have never had to work in their life to have their left wing Marxist protests. But all in all, it's impossible to describe it accurately, because although it fits the stereotype for an ultra liberal liberal arts niche school, it is so entrenched in its own traditions and its own certain atmosphere, that I don't think you can really understand Reed unless you are a student or staff here. Which makes it sound cultish, for sure. It kind of is. And I like it that way.
I'm suprised by the amount of underlying pragmatism that lies within this idealistic student body. There are more pre-meds and more people thinking about going to law school or buisness school than you'd think. For all that we pretend to be liberal hippies right now, I think most of us know that someday we will grow up and be responsible yuppies. There's an inner acknowledgement of this--even though we don't see our grades, even though we are here to learn.
I still feel very strongly that I would like to go to medical school someday, but I'm never 100% sure that that will be my path in life. I think I would definitely like to consider staying in academia, particularly a place that is rooted more in pedagogy than in research, because I think the biological sciences are something that a lot of people get turned off to because they see it as strictly memorization and don't see how it conceptually fits together. I'd like to instill the excitement that former biology teachers instilled in me in young people, perhaps. Or I think I might want to be a science writer. Who knows--I'm only a freshman in college; I have time.
I think what high school made me realize was how important academics are to me--how much learning in general facinates me, and how scared I was to feel like I might be put in an environment where people weren't on the same page as me. Reed is not a utopia in those regards. There are Reedies who are hypercompetitive. There are Reedies who are here more for its liberal reputation than its academic reputation. But overall, it's a pretty damn good place to find people who love academics. And academics of all types--whether it is chemistry or classics or music.
I got my hum paper back, and it was pretty covered in blue ink, there was a lot of criticism, but at the end my conference leader wrote "very well done!" That's gotta be a good sign!
Okay, well, I have work to do. Is this enough of an update for you guys?
