Oberlin Blogs

Twenty Obie Things I've Never Done

July 11, 2016

Karalyn Grimes ’16

1. Gone to Organ Pump. Not even the one on Halloween. Friends tell me you lie on the floor and can feel the vibrations in your chest.

2. Been to the Observatory for a night viewing. A true shame because it's supposed to be super beautiful.

3. Taken a class with Pam Brooks. I can't even tell y'all how much this saddens me.

4. Gone on an Outings Club trip. Every Fall and Spring break the Outings Club offers trips to different national parks for a week of canoeing, hiking, and camping. The trips are led by experienced hiker Obies and the trips are always completely free.

A group enjoys a sunny day in the woods
Taken during the women + trans Spring trip 2016. Photo: Kaia Austin

5. Been to Chance Creek. For someone who is currently spending their third summer in Oberlin, I don't even know how this happened.

6. Had 24 hour access to King or Mudd. It almost would have been worth majoring in Comp Sci for this. But at least I do have 24/7 access to the Bowling Alley.

7. Been on the roofs of Wright or Carnegie. Their fire escape ladders are too scary for me but I do know people who have done it. (I have been on Severance's roof and 10/10 would recommend.)

View of the street from a rooftop
View from atop Severance taken Fourth of July 2014. We could watch the fireworks from all over town up there. Photo: mine.

8. Lived on North Campus. I don't have any regrets about this one.

9. Done art rental. Every semester I swear I'm gonna brave the cold night or wake up early and walk over but every single time I haven't followed through. I could have had Picasso on my walls!

10. Head Cooked in OSCA. Even though I spent five semesters in OSCA, I typically did my hours by holding positions at the all-OSCA level. This really limited my time in the Harkness kitchen, even though I've really developed a love of cooking in college.

Karalyn stirs a gigantic pot of vegetables.
A rare sighting of me prepping a co-op meal. Photo: Jack Hoehn.

11. Taken an art or creative writing class. I wish I had made more time for creativity during my time here. I think that would have been a really nice outlet for me. I am hoping to get into a short story course this coming semester, though!

12. Taken a biology course. Biology was my strongest and favorite subject in high school but I never got around to carving out room in my predominantly Humanities schedule for it. Sometimes I really miss memorizing charts and processes.

13. Taken a math course. Thank g-d.

14. Gotten far enough in ObieGames to make it to the Finals.

15. Continued my French studies. Which became unfortunate when I was stranded in Paris during my semester abroad and no one could understand me.

Written over a Paris metro map: Paris, c'est une grande MERDE.
I really did love Paris. Photo: mine.

16. Done an internship somewhere really cool. I have friends who have been paid to work on bee apiaries, visit Hawai'i, work for Black + Pink, or spend a Winter Term in Amsterdam. Some tragic combination of being low-income and having intense performance anxiety has just blocked me from pursuing making this a thing.

17. Done honors research. Probably for similar reasons as 16. That's okay, though. Perhaps as suggested by how this list is pretty academic heavy, academics have never been my major focus at Oberlin. Learning sure has, but I've done a lot of that outside of the classroom. What even is Honors, really?

18. Gone Swing or Blues dancing. I love to dance too! I just also really like to sleep and they dance late at night. I have danced my butt off at Drag Ball, though.

A group of friends dressed for a night out
Friends getting ready for drag ball my second year. Photo: mine.

19. Participated in intramurals or OCircus. I'm not very athletic so the desire has never really been there, but I think it would have been cool to learn aerials.

20. Taken a professor to Professor Beers. I am fixing this next semester.

Prospies, what on this list are you really looking forward to doing at Oberlin? Alumni, what do regret most not having done during your time here? Current students, how many on my list can you say you've done?

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