Butterflies!

This week I've been focusing on my summer classes finishing up. Summer seems like it absolutely flew by but when I think about the things I did at the beginning of summer, they seem *so* far away. Even further behind that is the memory of my first few weeks of freshman year.

Every now and then, I have this vivid flashback of walking down Chalmers around 7 PM with my roommates and their dates in tow. The sun is shining and my skin feels warm. The sunshine literally feels like its touching my bones. The frat houses are blasting summery music and there are cute guys lounging around the front lawns in tank tops and douchey sunglasses. This scene cuts to a nighttime scene when we are walking around the same area. The sun is gone, but there is still just the right amount of warmth lingering in the air. We walk from frat house to frat house, timidly trying to experience some serious partying. And in my head it's a lot of fun. We danced and ran into people we thought we'd never see again and made fun of people getting too drunk and then went home to our cozy suite.

That's a nice memory to have and it gives me butterflies thinking that soon I'll get to do it all over again.

Except that it never actually happened...sooo...

In Champaign it's as hot as Chicago and most nights around 7 PM still feel humid and hot as hell. Seeing frat boys chilling outside their houses never makes me feel flirtatious and confident; it makes me self conscious and judged. The weather is nice on some nights, but it also gets chilly like any other place. Also it's strange how in this fantasy we never run into other groups of drunk people who inevitably make rude and lewd comments to any passersby groups. The actual parties that we went to sucked. Especially during welcome week, everyone in our group was too scared to actually try any alcohol, and when you find yourself trying to enjoy drunk, sweaty people crammed into a dirty living room with an unexplicably sticky floor, a drink can be your best friend.

Needless to say, I didn't really have a hands down awesome time partying it up at frat houses. I don't even think I went to more than maybe 3 parties. I have more cherished memories of doing things like crying at Titanic in 3D with my friends, playing road games while driving to mock trial competitions and even just random weeknights spent studying at the Ike.

But this one memory of this one night at a frat party keeps popping into my head and making me really excited to go back to Champaign...maybe I'm clairvoyant!

Love,

Ranjini