The Pinning Ceremony and the Honors Social

Tuesday night, I attended both the Honors College pinning ceremony and the Honors Social.

I was late to the pinning ceremony, just by three minutes. I had left my purse in my bike basket, so after tearing up two flights of stairs to get to the ceremony on time, I had to turn around and tear right back down. To my great delight, I still arrived just before the ceremony started. The pinning ceremony was very formal, and I’d accidentally forgotten to change my light blue tennis shoes. I’m glad I went. I did not learn anything or laugh at anything, but it was valuable. The ceremony celebrated graduating honors college students, and while I watched the students walk up to receive their pins and take a picture, I thought of the vast amount of work that had led up to this moment.

The cake at the reception afterwards was quite pretty, and the fruit was astonishingly (and deliciously) fresh.

I got a ride with one of my friends that night, and we went to the Honors Social at Red Meze, a Mediterranean restaurant. I loved the social. I feel a lot closer and a lot more familiar with my honors friends, but this event gave me even better opportunity to connect with them even more. I think this social came at a great point in the semester; I know these people already, and I’m not as terribly awkward around them as I was at first. Now, I know them even better and love them even more.

There were lots of people there, and so many conversations going on at once. There were not many places to sit once everyone had arrived, but it worked somehow. The food was very interesting. I loved the gyro I ate, and the hummus was fantastic. The only thing, in fact, that I found hard to enjoy was the rice and herbs wrapped in grape leaves. I think it was called dolma. It looked like chocolate and tasted like leaves soaked in vinegar. I put one on my plate before I knew what it tasted like, and ate the whole thing with much effort and unhappiness. I realized, when I was done, that I was no longer in the eat-your-vegetables-before-leaving-the-table stage of life, and it was probably acceptable to have just left it on my plate.

There was a dance afterwards, affectionately nicknamed “nerd prom” (as I learned from several of the sophomores) and from the dance came the true adventures of the night.

I used up all 3 of my dance moves within the first 2 songs, unfortunately. The rest of my dancing was an awkward attempt to copy what someone else was doing and trying to make it seem like I was copying them because they were cool. My favorite songs were the cupid shuffle and cotton eyed Joe. The choreography was a blessing to my useless hands and feet.

All in all, though, I think I’ve enjoyed that dance more than any other dance I’ve been to. After about 10 minutes of dancing, most people had thrown off their goal of not looking ridiculous, which made the atmosphere much more fun and the dancing hilarious. I intend to be at every honors social from now on.