My dear purple people eaters,
I know you love to complain. Yes, I know the quarter system leaves everyone perpetually academically screwed (I have a midterm tomorrow, too, you know), Evanston is ruining our brothel fun, and you don’t have a girlfriend/boyfriend/fuck buddy. I get it, Northwestern, mostly because I’m in Medill and God knows that Bitching is really what I’m majoring in.
But there is one complaint that is starting to drive me a little crazy. It’s the extremely original, ridiculously dramatic “we don’t have any school spirit/community here” one. “Northwestern doesn’t have school spirit,” you whine to me while ironically wearing a P-Wild t-shirt. You blame it on North and South campus being so different, our football team sucking, the Greek system, the Keg closing, the lack of a “dating scene,” living off-campus, living on campus in certain dorms, Norris not being the best student center ever, the quarter system, Evanston, people wearing sweatshirts from Ivy League schools they didn’t get into, blah blah blah. I’ve heard it all, and I’m sure you have too.
And yeah, Norris is kind of crappy, the Keg closing is sad, and, after living in the Midquads for two years, I can confidently say that some dorms are really anti-social. However, that doesn’t mean that good ol’ Nerdwestern isn’t a unified “community.” We have the Northwestern memes that everyone can laugh at, an excessive amount of purple t-shirts, and the Northwestern Nocturnal Club Facebook group. We have the quarter system/Evanston/our football team to bitch about/bond over. We have all those sad but true NU-themed Twitter accounts (@NrthwesternGay and @NrthwesternGrl). We can poke fun at ourselves for being so incredibly nerdy, sleep- and sex-deprived.
That says “school spirit” and “community” to me. Maybe I have an overly optimistic view of things here, but isn’t it possible that we have school spirit and don’t even recognize it? How could it be that everyone on campus talks about wanting school spirit, a sense of community, and all those lovely terms so much, but we apparently don’t have it? If everyone at Northwestern wants a unified community, shouldn’t we have it by now?
Give yourself a break, Northwestern. We have a community here. Don’t over-think it. Just because we’re not a tiny, 1,000-student incestuous school doesn’t mean that we don’t love it here. I know I do.
Good luck on surviving the end of winter quarter!
Love,
Nicki