welcome back

I’ve found myself at Hampshire for the past week or so, acting as ‘orientation staff,’ working with media services to do the sound for the various orientation activities that require a P.A system. I happened to be working during the talk for all of the new students and parents that are on campus that the president and some other staff do the very day that new students arrive. It was the fourth time I’ve heard this talk, because I was once a first year, and after that an orientation leader my second and third year.

I’ve been in generally good spirits, but the feeling of depression, malaise, and distaste that this talk aroused in me was…acute. The optimism and the energy struck me as artificial and irritating. The director of admissions always has a bit that she does, which has been the same every year: she talks about the unique qualities of the incoming class, based on interesting things she read or heard about in the applications. It’s the same basic thing every time, with a bit of variation (something that is also true of the new students…). This year, I remember two of them. For the first, she quoted from the student’s application essay, which was a sort of metaphor, a double entendre that suggested the student’s love of Hampshire was something more than intellectual. It was a amusing ‘love letter’ that he wrote addressed to the school. I admit that it was clever (though histrionic). But I couldn’t help but ask my self, ‘how the fuck can someone care about Hampshire that much?’ Even before I started here, I wasn’t nearly that enthusiastic. Well, I see disappointment in his future.

The second student that she talked about was one who was a fixed gear bike mechanic, or some shit like that. That brought up certain associations. At any rate, the point is that I’ve found something new that evokes a sentiment of malaise in me that I can blog about.