5. Asking, “Where are the forks?” while standing right in front of them
It was my first time eating at Rand. I had heard about how bad the lines were, but I never truly believed it until I got there myself. After waiting 20 minutes, struggling to tell the dining staff what I wanted over the chatter, and balancing a plate, salad bowl, drink, and cookie in my arms, I managed to successfully scan my Commodore Card and get my food. This was back when Rand was using paper plates, so I was saved from the embarrassment of having to set up Reusepass on the spot in front of the waiting upperclassmen (which I definitely did not experience a few days later). I then entered the dining room and found myself forkless. I guess I had been expecting to pick one up before leaving the dining hall area, and was suddenly faced with the thought of having to eat my rice with my hands. I said out loud to myself, “Wait, where are the forks?” A girl standing next to me responded, “Right there.” I turned around to find the utensil dispensers no more than two feet away from me. I then proceeded to fight the dispenser for a good 30 seconds before figuring out how to get the forks out. Turns out you gotta pull pretty hard.
-100 aura
4. Dropping my freshly clean laundry on the floor
Doing laundry at Vanderbilt is like a war zone. I have the great fortune of living in Memorial House, meaning I have no laundry in my dorm. I therefore have to go to Stambaugh to do my laundry, which has four functional washers for the 260 students in the two houses. Make it make sense Vanderbilt. My friends and I went to do laundry on Saturday afternoon, apparently the same time everyone else decided to do theirs, even though half of y’all were supposed to be at the Community of Care event. When we arrived at Stam, there were no open washers, so we decided to try Hank and Gillette, only to find out that we were locked out of their laundry rooms. When we got back to Stam 20 minutes later some washers had finished, so I started my load after pulling out the underwear of some dude who failed to properly set a timer. When the 30 minutes was up I rushed back to the laundry room to get to my clothes before someone else could. While moving my stuff from the washer to the drier, I managed to drop multiple freshly cleaned shirts on that nasty nasty laundry room floor in front of at least five other students. I also somehow lost two socks. I swear I’m going to have no socks left by the end of the semester.
-300 aura. But +50 aura for actually washing my sheets (I better see y’all doing this).
3. Getting lost in a Medical Center building I was definitely not allowed to be in
A friend and I decided to walk classes together before they started. My friend is in the 1,100 person US Elections class in Langford Auditorium, so we decided to go there. This was before we attended the 90 thousand orientation events in Langford, so we had no clue where it was. We were coming from my class in Wilson, and followed Google Maps to the terrifying maze that is Medical Center. We started to follow the signs that pointed to the auditorium and got pretty darn close before we got confused, decided we had made a wrong turn (we hadn’t), and turned around. We then looked at Google Maps again, and it directed us to a building labeled Medical Research Building IV. “Is it in there?” we thought. We tried to open the door with our Commodore Cards, but it was locked. As we were about to walk away, a man in scrubs walked up and asked, “Do you guys need to get in?” We responded, “I think so?” and he swiped a physical ID card and opened the door for us. Inside, we found ourselves surrounded by nurses and doctors and not a single Vanderbilt student. “We’re definitely not supposed to be in here,” I said. We walked out of the other side of the building and ended up next to the Panera. It was then and only then that we were able to find Langford Auditorium. Turns out Google Maps knows where the buildings are but has no clue where the entrances are.
-1000 aura
2. Walking out of the dorm in slippers (multiple times)
We all know the shoes. Those ugly slides that you wear from your dorm room to the bathroom, because you’d have to be actually insane to put your bare foot on that bathroom floor. They’re my most worn shoes. On the first day of class, I got all dressed up, packed my backpack, and I had my slides on as I was brushing my teeth in the bathroom. I then proceeded to forget that I was not wearing real shoes, scanned into the elevator, and took exactly one step outside of my building before looking down at my feet and whispering a profanity that I will not repeat here. I then spent the next five minutes going back up the elevator, unlocking my door, changing my shoes, and coming back down. I consequently arrived late to class. Of course, I repeated this process approximately three times in the following days.
-400 aura (but times 4)
1. Reading the entire campus reading book
And finally, I fell prey to Vanderbilt’s messages that the campus reading would be very important when I arrived on campus and would be a major part of orientation. I spent more time than I care to admit this summer reading that book cover to cover (some of the points she makes are actually valid). Although I speedran writing the essay in like 20 minutes, I spent a lot of time editing it, as I thought it would be shared with the other students in my Visions group and wanted to make a good first impression. All this only to arrive on campus and spend no more than two minutes talking about the book in Visions. Seriously, it was mentioned literally once and then we moved onto some team building activity, never to speak of it again. And my VUceptor probably spent a grand total of 45 seconds skimming my essay (no shade though, I adore my VUceptor she’s so sweet). Well, at least Ms. Mónica Guzmán got her bag from Vandy buying like 2,000 copies of her book.
-100000000 aura
