Be Kind

When I woke a moment ago and checked out the MSN headlines, I was reminded that I arrived at Yale for Bulldog Days six years ago today.

No, I didn't tattoo the date somewhere, nor did I stick a big gold star on my calendar in memory of the event. You see, today is April 20, and I had a rather...unusual...welcome.

My host, a Calhoun frosh, lived in the Bingham tower on Old Campus. I followed her across the uneven stone walkway I would come to love and despise, and stared up at the neo-Gothic architecture with joy. This was college, this was what higher learning was all about, tall trees and towering edifices of stone that looked vaguely European...

Several floors above us, a guy leaned out a window and spotted us coming up the walk. "Hey, Lindsay!" he yelled down, catching my host's attention. "Be kind!"

She rolled her eyes and swiped me in. "It's 4/20," she explained, noting my confusion. "He's nuts. Ignore him."

Nothing like a pot celebration to welcome the pre-frosh. Still, the first time I visited Yale was in the middle of a March nor'easter, and I woke in my host's LW room the next morning to find her and her boyfriend in the bunk beneath me. Her roommate, who had been chaperoning me, had taken the couch, and started yelling in French when I shook her awake.

Man, I miss college.