Classic Bev

This past weekend was Family Weekend and, despite the slightly gloomy weather, I had a great time. I used to work with the Dean’s office on organizing the weekend (this was my first time being on campus and not being a part of it), so it was kind of surreal just to participate instead of worrying about having enough chairs or 8-footer tables for the Back Patio lunch at Lowry.

My mom came for Saturday and we went to the football parade (which I explained in the last post) and I have to admit, I got a little teary. It’s such a cool tradition and next Saturday will be my last one as a Wooster student–another surreal thought. My mom and I kind of made our own plans and went out to lunch and then wandered around campus. I finally got to take her to Kauke (humanities and social sciences aka my home!), because she hasn’t seen it since it’s been renovated and it is gorgeous now. She brought her camera with her but didn’t take one picture because she was so busy walking around with her mouth open (her words). We also went shopping downtown at one of my favorite stores, Gallery in the Vault, which is an old bank vault that they have converted into an art gallery. They sell prints and jewelry and then in the actual vault is a featured artist’s work. We also went to the Hungarian Bakery, which both professors and friends have tried to get me to try since I was a first year, and I finally went—it was AMAZING.

It was great to have my mom here, especially because even though I only live an hour away, she and I don’t get to meet up very often (she’s a professor at Kent State and has crazy teaching hours, in addition to tons of other work with our church and the First Ladies Library). She didn’t get to meet any of my professors, unfortunately, but there’s always Commencement in the spring.

Right now, it’s focus on IS time, though I’m still making sure I have time to hang out. My film recommendation this week is Across the Universe, which I saw in Akron with several of the Peanuts on Friday. I love musicals, and this one just felt like I was watching moving art. Julie Taymor, the director, is a visionary. I had to watch one of her other films, Titus, for my Classical Tradition class sophomore year. For those of you who haven’t seen Titus, a warning: don’t eat before you see it. And stress to your professor that there’s no need to view it more than once. When you watch it, you’ll see what I mean…

To clarify, the College’s Homecoming is probably pretty different than a high school Homecoming. For starters, there is no dance, no one is crowned king or queen. What it lacks in formal dresses and overpriced tickets, however, it makes up for in sheer excitement. I look forward to Homecoming weekend each year because it gives me the chance to see so many friends who have graduated. Homecoming this year was no different, though it had a few additions that made it the best Homecoming ever. I’ll start from the beginning…

As it has already been stated, I’m a big Indians fan (see embarrassing picture below). My friend Kate and I decided to miss the first night of Homecoming to go see the Maroon 5 concert in Cleveland, which happened to be the same night as Game 2 in the AL Divisional Series vs the Yankees. Throughout the opening acts, people in the audience were checking the scores via text messages and iPhone (like the lovely man next to us who I creeped next to for the first few songs and then just blatantly told him I had been staring at his phone for half an hour, so he kept me updated). As it neared 9:20, the time Maroon 5 was supposed to come on stage, the camera men began to focus their cameras on the small TVs in the luxury boxes, all of which were tuned to the game. Suddenly we were all able to watch this game—I actually completely forgot I was even at a Maroon 5 concert, save for Kate’s continual plea to send a public text message that said “Go Yankees”. Thanks Kate.

I checked my watch and it was 9:30 and that’s when I realized it—Maroon 5 was waiting to go on until the game was over. They now have my vote for best band of all time. We were in extra innings, Kenny Lofton (the “mayor of Cleveland”) hit home Travis Hafner, we all started screaming, and the lights went down and Maroon 5 came on all in about 10 seconds. Best 10 seconds of my life (hence the note in the title of this post).

The rest of the weekend was a blur. Friends were coming out of the woodwork- my friend Rhian surprised us all the way from Arizona, about 10 girls from my club (Peanuts) came back to campus, and I got to see so many people from my Classics department. Homecoming comes at just the right time during the school year too: it’s not too hot or cold for a football game or intrasquad lacrosse game, the weather is beautiful, everyone was having cookouts and socials. Saturday had everything from a mechanical bull to a funhouse and laser tag right behind Lowry. It’s funny how something as adult as coming “home” after college can be so comfortable and fun. I’m looking forward to my first Homecoming as an alum, though obviously I still have some time to go…

Sorry about the big delay in posts, but it’s been a crazy semester so far! With IS, work, and all of my classes (plus all of the fun little things), it’s been hard to find time to sit down and talk about it. But now that it’s Fall Break, it seems like a good time to reflect on the semester thus far. I’ll break it down over the next few days to fill in the important stuff, though the only thing that seems dominant in my head is BASEBALL.

Seemingly nothing to do with Wooster, I know, but I have been a Cleveland Indians fan since I moved to Ohio. We went through a few rough years after the ‘97 World Series–we haven’t even hit the postseason since 2001. But this season has been AMAZING. We’re heading back to Cleveland running off of one of the best games I’ve ever seen (did anybody else catch the 11th inning? 7 runs? Postseason record? Just checking.) and hopefully we can finish off the Red Sox there.

The Wooster Activities Crew plans trips and events all around campus and also in Cleveland and Columbus. Browns games, visits to museums and galleries, late night movies on the Quad (Knocked Up is on the 18th, can’t wait for that one)– WAC sponsored a trip to a Tribe game in September that was an absolute blast. I drove up with a few of my friends (Red Sox fans, actually, remind me to disown them…) for batting practice so we could try to catch a stray ball or two. And it worked! After memorizing the Detroit roster (Tribe BP was already over), we started calling to players when they had the ball and they tossed two right to us! I have the ball in my dorm room now, sitting in a tiny Tribe hat, if only to maintain that while it may have been a Detroit ball, I’m still loyal.

One of the best parts of the game though, besides the four home runs, was being able to watch it with a huge group of my friends. There were at least 30 Wooster kids there, all sitting in the same section, and it was SO much fun. The Tribe has given me the opportunity to hang out with my friends during the year (watching the game while “doing homework” aka screaming obscenities at the screen while other people do homework…sorry guys) and during the summer (my close friend and first year roomie Allison had never been to a pro baseball game before a Tribe game last summer. Unfortunately, she’s a Red Sox fan too. Where do I find these people!? ). As we enter Game Three, I find myself relieved that we don’t have class until Wednesday. It’ll give me the chance to catch up on some homework, relax, and cheer on my boys. Go Tribe!

I woke up this morning all excited and nervous (and also about two hours earlier than I wanted to–stupid sun). It’s kind of a weird realization: this is the last time I’ll be feeling like this for a long time (well, let’s face it, there’s next semester too, but there’s something special about the first day of the year). Job interviews, grad school interviews, Wooster commencement in May: will these be the next events that ellicit the same response?

I didn’t expect to find myself in my senior year of college as a Classics major. I was thinking Communication, honestly–my FYS professor advised me to take Latin to fill my foreign language requirement. I had taken it in high school and enjoyed it–I had already met Dr. Sternberg, a Classics prof here at the time, back when I was a prospie and I adored her, so I figured I couldn’t go wrong. I didn’t anticipate, however, loving the language and the department so quickly (literally Day One). There’s something about the enthusiasm a professor puts forth that makes it easy and exciting to learn and Dr. McGowan, the Latin 101 prof, certainly had that down. I decided around the first Friday of my first year that I would be a Classics major. And here I am.

So now I’m trying to figure out how to bridge my Classics major/Comp Lit minor/PR ambition all into one. Luckily, my advisors are very creative and (key word) patient women who have helped me develop an IS topic that will bridge all three. I have my first official Senior IS meeting tomorrow afternoon (ahhhh!!!). Stay tuned to see how it turns out for me…

So on Sunday night, I went to go see Superbad with three of my oldest (and dearest) friends, Mike, Chris, and Ryan. We’ve known each other for a pretty long time, Chris was actually my first friend in kindergarten (we had the same birthday, so with kindergarten logic, obviously, we were brother and sister and didn’t know it). So I’m sitting there watching this ridiculous (but hilarious) movie about three friends and their final weeks of high school and one of the lines really hit me. Evan says to his best friend Seth that he’s living with Fogell (or McLovin, as his fake ID states) because “I didn’t want to live with strangers.” These two guys spend the whole movie ignoring the fact that in a few weeks, they aren’t going to be together anymore. I think that security blanket is pretty hard to let go.

Chris, Ryan, Mike, and I all went to separate colleges. And yet here we were, years after we graduated from high school, still hanging out and watching this movie as if no time had passed. Sure, we spent hours afterwards talking about grad school and law school and what we were all going to do after we graduate from our respective colleges this spring, but it was really comforting to know that, once again, we’re all in the same place in our lives: the unknown.

The unknown’s a pretty familiar place at this point, we’re all frequent residents: I was there when I started my new job, when I went abroad, and especially when I started college at Wooster. I think that the one thing that’s really important to remember about college is that everyone is starting out in the unknown. No one there knows what it’s like to be a college student.

Don’t be afraid to go up to someone you don’t know and say hi, because no one knows anyone. Everyone is just as nervous and excited and scared as you are. This is an amazing opportunity to be on a level playing field.

I’m looking forward to being on campus for the first day of orientation for the first years. I’m hoping to see a lot of kids stepping outside of their comfort zone–I plan on grabbing the wallflowers and throwing them into the mix. I remember meeting my roommate Allison inside the Kauke Arch (could we have been more cheesy and symbolic?) on that Wednesday and I just walked up and hugged her. I don’t know if I would have been so bold anywhere else, but a) Wooster’s a pretty friendly place and b) I figured she was just as nervous as I was. If you look at our class picture, we’re sitting right on the Kauke steps with everyone else and there’s a pretty common theme among the class of 2008: excitement. I’m hoping that’s the case with the Class of 2011 (and more Wooster classes to come…).

Hi! I’m Bev Brooks, a 21-year-old senior here at the College of Wooster. I’m a Classical Studies major/Comparative Literature minor and I hail from Kent, Ohio (though I was born in Syracuse, NY). I have a lot of loves, everything from dancing to Classics (especially Rome–sigh) to Wooster itself (insert cheesy comment here). I’ve wanted to go into public relations since I was 13. I took one of those career aptitude tests in 8th grade. The first time I took it, it said I should be a public relations specialist and that sounded like it would fit me perfectly. I love talking with people and changing the way someone sees the world–and the way the world sees others. For the record, though, the second time, I filled it in with silly answers and the test said I should be a model– so if this whole PR thing doesn’t work out, clearly modeling is my backup. I’d have to start learning how to stand for long periods of time though. And grow a solid nine inches. Note to self…

Why Classic Bev? Well partially because I’m a Classics major and I wanted to be clever (ugh, did it fail miserably?) and partially because this blog will be student life directly from a student–reality only. It’s going to cover everything imaginable–or at least it’ll try. Social life, classes, Wooster traditions (just wait till it snows!!), some backstory on myself. Stay tuned as I navigate through my senior year and all that comes with it–IS, senior events, grad school vs the “real world”–ahhhh!! If you have any questions or comments, just post or email me at bbrooks08@wooster.edu.

I’m really looking forward to this year, especially since I get to share it with all of you. Cheeseball, I know, but it’s only cause it’s summer. Wait till the year starts, I’m sure my trademark sarcasm will set in.