« 1180: Jetsetter on MTV's Real World | Main | 1182: Sit on that cake! »

June 04, 2007

1181: Five years later, girls still just wanna have fun.

Back from the reunion, ladies and gents, and happy to report that it was a complete blast.

After having been trapped (inexplicably) in a cab on the FDR for an hour (!) on Friday and consequently late meeting Aili to drive down, we were all happily reunited over Thai food before heading over to campus. Traditionally, the "step sing" (in which each represented year sings its own class song and everyone joins in for the all-Greek BMC classic and "Bread and Roses," among others) takes place outside by candlelight (well, by lantern-light) and typically features drinking, streaking, and a few tears (generally not brought on by the streaking but by the sentimentality that this school inspires).

So when we arrived to find that the reunion's step sing would be taking place indoors, in a brightly lit room full of chairs, responsible people with babies, and a sense of overall sobriety... we were a bit concerned. We slunk to the back like the hooligans we are, leaving the chairs to our more dignified predecessors from the classes of 1942 on to the class of 1997. The class of 2002, for the most part, did its best to control its otherwise unrestrained sense of reckless abandonment. Our older sisters harmonized in heartfelt renditions of soft, tender songs about love, hope, and friendship. When our turn came, the room turned around to stare at the twitching, giggling crew that represented 2002 and we yelled out the song which probably best describes our relationship to the world...

My friends are delivering healthy babies, ensuring legal justice for all, traveling the world, fighting terrorism, creating venues for artistic expression, and bettering the world in a myriad of ways. (Me, I'm in advertising, but whatever. Does my work to promote fabulousness count for nothing? I think not!) But no matter how serious our professional pursuits, I'm glad that our desire to spread joy remains as strong as ever. "Girl Power" was a lie none of us bought into, but are we not empowering women by example? We work hard, we support each other, we support an institution that strives to educate women and spread the desire to better society as a whole. If the mark we have personally left on this institution is one of lasting friendship and happiness, I think that's great. You can be forward-thinking, feminist, and taken seriously while still having a thirst for fun.

In 2052, I suspect we will still be sneaking around with a bottle of champagne to share. We'll just sneak a little bit more slowly.

Posted by ashley at June 4, 2007 02:23 PM

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.ashleysaunders.com/cgi/mt-tb.cgi/1181

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference 1181: Five years later, girls still just wanna have fun.: