The following is an email I got from a UNH freshmen. My question to you is, should I let him to write for the blog next semester? My gut says yes.
Dear New Hampshirite,
I have been reading your blog since the end of the summer. I came across it while trying to prepare myself for life at UNH. You see, in high school I was a bit of a one man wolf pack... scratch that, I was a one man wolf pack. My three best friends were:
- my parent's netflix account
- my xbox 360
- and good ole' lefty
When I got accepted to UNH, I wanted to change that. I never had a girl friend. I never tasted alcohol and I always made lame excuses as to why I missed parties. Basically, if my high school life was a box a chocolates, that box would be filled with all the shitty flavors everyone spits out. After one semester of college, not much has changed. Sure I've gotten drunk a few times (exactly 3) with kids on my floor, but that's about it. I want to change all that and start fresh next semester and I would like to chronicle my attempts anonymously here on this blog. It should be awkward and hopefully fun. So what do you say? I feel like if you would let me do this, I would feel 100% obligated to leave my room on Friday and Saturday nights and see what UNH really has to offer outside the classroom. A few kids on my floor have offered to take me out at before, but I always declined. I don't want to decline anymore. I wouldn't write more than once a week - if that, just recaps of different experiences and stuff like that. What do you think?
When I first read this email, I immediately thought of this
Seinfeld clip. (Embedding is disabled for it.) Basically what it says is this isn't the prototypical person I would have write on the blog, but he has the ambition to become one. We can see this young man develop into a true Wildcat, or at least awkwardly try. What do you say Nonsensical Nation, should we give him a chance? (Just so you know, this is not a fake. He used his UNH email and I found him on facebook to check that he is a freshman. Yes, even I do background checks when receiving applications.)
Stay classy, not UMassy.
hahaha yes this would be soo funny
ReplyDeleteNot gonna hurt to give the kid a chance, worse case scenario he makes someone laugh
ReplyDeleteYES! This would be awesome. It would be like the Truman Show, except a more drunk/hilarious version. I'm sure the Nonsensical Nation would help this poor kid in his adventures to become a true college student.
ReplyDeleteI give two thumbs up (not that New Hampshirite would take my opinion into consideration...)
Agreed. Give it a go!
ReplyDeleteGive him a chance!! You're graduating after this semester... you need someone to carry on the anonymous blog after you leave, and this would prep him for that chance!
ReplyDeleteMake sure he knows his rights. This sounds like a recipe for a drunk and stupid freshman arrest.
ReplyDeleteBut yes, definitely he should write for the blog
Sorry for the wall of text here, but I think reasoning needs to be fully fleshed out.
ReplyDeleteFirst off, the kids intentions are to have a college experience - from his words this sounds like getting drunk, partying, and having sex. However, he needs YOUR BLOG to get the courage to do this. I thought alcohol alone was supposed to be liquid courage, and now he needs you? That seems superficial to me. What's to say he would remain "anoymous" after a couple blogs get him popularity? What if after the first few good blogs, he just goes to a party and says "I'm with the New Hampshirite, get me wasted"? You've been trying to get the "real" college experience, make sure you can trust the guy. Maybe send him on some test runs first.
Second, your blog has talked on numerous occassions about how the college experience is more than just sex, drugs, and alcohol, and yet, by allowing this kid to write about his sex, drugs, and alcohol instead of having someone write about "real issues," you are perpetuating the myth you hope to abolish. You give a kid who only wants to "live a little" a chance, but I've rarely seen anyone but you write about "issues." You shot down the "druggiest" and "party" school tags we got, but this is no better.
Third, a comment above says "make sure he knows his rights." I'd be just as worried about YOUR rights... and your conscience. I'm pretty sure the kid is underage (freshman typically aren't 21), so your blog might come under heavy fire for assisting the lad in his illegal endeavors. It's one thing to be responsible for your own actions while you were underage and blogging, but if anything happens to this kid, you have to live with the fact that YOU are somewhat responsible (at least morally, if not lawfully) for any harm done. I don't think the risk is worth it.
If this UNDERAGE kid gets alcohol poisoning trying to look cool on your college blog that's read by thousands egging him on to "chug, chug, chug" could you sleep at night?
This isn't one of your buddies that you've let take over the blog a bit to to give other experiences (the Australia/New Zealand? blogs come to mind), this is a stranger who needs your blog to feed his ego.
Monstrous balls for even sending that. Sounds like a slow train wreck but should be interesting.
ReplyDeletei think you should give the kid a chance, it sounds like it could be funny. and everyone deserves their chance at an experience and this sounds like it could at least help him get out of his shell
ReplyDeleteVinny the party pooper has a good point. I was thinking maybe you let a few kids write for the blog, maybe a mix of frosh, sophomores, juniors, seniors (I'm a freshman and I've been reading it since junior year of high school). And as much as I want to say give the kid a chance (and I still think you should), you have to think about all of those anti-freedom-of-speech, politically correct FUCKHEADS who could stumble upon this and then blame everything that might happen to the kid on you. Maybe just make him sign a disclaimer? Also, I agree with others in saying that the college experience isn't just sex, partying, and drinking, and that you allowing him to write for this to give himself the courage to do all of it is kinda lame. He should do whatever he wants to on his own initiative. I can say that I've done all three in my first semester here, but a lot of my fondest memories are of different occasions, where alcohol/partying/sex wasn't involved (although it certainly helps haha).
ReplyDeleteI say, give him a shot, but tell him to do what he wants on his own initiative, and seriously think about a disclaimer, you don't want to be getting a call from Durham PD and thinking, "how could I possibly get in trouble if I don't even go to UNH anymore?" From his email, I could immediately sense that he has the same great talent for writing sarcastically and witty like you. But he seems like he's got a lot to learn. Give him a chance. But he's gotta learn some stuff first
this dude can actually write.. give him a chance!
ReplyDeleteBest case scenario he grows and matures with the blog and is a valuable resource.
ReplyDeleteWorst case he spirals into a drug and disease infested hell of his own making.
Do it.