May 14, 2021 | LIFE | By Berry Phillips | Illustration by Patil Khakhamian
As my four years at Colorado College (and three years at The Catalyst) come to a close, I’ve been thinking a lot about storytelling. What becomes a story and why, and who you choose to share it with and when. Something so special about CC is that the Block Plan intensifies everything — forms friendships quickly, creates bonds within classes easily, and connects everyone on campus to everyone else in one way or another. So, our stories from our time at college share that intensity. But this can create a real “you had to be there” tone, because we all know that the magic of CC can’t really be encapsulated into one little story.
As a testament to the extraordinary closeness of our class, fostered by the Block Plan, I have gathered the stand-out funniest moments that my friends and classmates remembered, and they did not disappoint. From Zoom U to office hours, the Class of 2021 can definitely find comedy in anything.
“I said that I thought a guy in my Zoom class was hot to my roommate and I wasn’t muted.”
“Farted on my way into one-on-one office hours with my professor after having an upset stomach all morning. The whole meeting I could still smell the fart which I thought was really weird. When I went to the bathroom after, it turned out I had completely shit my pants and sat in it for 45 minutes chatting with my prof.”
“I was sexiled by my roommate freshman year and was bored so I lost my virginity to a kid in my hall … in Shove.”
“Freshman year, I lived in a triple in Mathias. One of my roommates found a baby squirrel outside of the building and decided to adopt it. He brought it to our room for the night but it seemed like it had fleas so he released it the next day.”
“My friends held a mock trial about who stole whose Juul and every defendant had their own counsel. Attorney-client privilege was a bit of a problem.”
“Asked a kid if he got hit by a car because his face was super busted up. Turns out he had. Hope he’s okay though!”
These are glimpses of the joy, pain, and embarrassment (and everything in between) that we all felt during the last four years as we found our sense of place within the CC community. I hope by reading them, you are reminded of your own memories with friends and the unique feeling of connectedness that we have here (even though I’m slightly offended you didn’t decide to submit them to The Catalyst).
And underclassmen, learn from our mistakes … but make the most of your time at CC, even if that means laughing at yourself from time to time.