Category Archives: Student Life

Auld Lang Syne

Posted on May 7, 2013 by Julian Giarraputo '13

So I’m still kind of reeling from this. I am writing this just minutes after my English senior seminar met for the last time, and I never thought a class could go out with such a real emotional response.

I don’t know if I’m supposed to give out personal endorsements, but Professor Mazzeo in the English Department is a boss. She’s crazy smart but in an approachable, non-pretentious way, something she can probably pull off because she’s not like a lot of intellectuals who try to flaunt that stuff with constant use of high language. She’s a cool lady.

We had a final essay that she decided to swap out for a performance by our class. It was in the fireside lounge, a small room in the Pulver (the student center) and we got to invite our friends to it. My group did a rendition of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Kubla Khan, but all in Bane’s voice. Like from Batman. That hits poetry comprehension, public speaking, and creative muscle all in one assignment – maybe the most fun I’ve ever had in a literature class.

Then, I was really nervous for our regular class afterword. I had somewhat of a family emergency last week so I had to dip down to New York for a bit, and as a result, I didn’t have enough time to memorize another poem that I was supposed to recite in class (which was part of the regular curriculum.) I felt really bad because I was the only one who didn’t finish this assignment and was prepared, tail between my legs, to either take a big GPA hit or otherwise get dumped on during finals week. Mazzeo said it was fine, no grade penalty, but as reparations I would have to memorize that poem and recite it in the pub on Wednesday, the typical pub night on campus. In attendance will be the English Department faculty, my classmates, and whoever usually goes to the pub that early. How sick is that?

And finally, the weirdest/most sentimental thing. Obviously, we’re a senior seminar class so we’re all seniors and will not be taking another class with Mazzeo. She got us to look up the lyrics to Auld Lang Syne (look it up on youtube if you think you don’t know it – I’m sure you do) and sing it acapella for the last 10 minutes of class. Roughly translated, it means ‘for old times sake,’ and it was really surreal – kids were laughing, clutching their hearts. It was really emotional, and honestly, was the first time I’ve been hit with how much I’m going to miss this place. We’ll take a cup of kindness yet.

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Frisbee Regionals (or, alternatively, not)

Posted on May 3, 2013 by Julian Giarraputo '13

Ok so I don’t know what happened, but my post from last week (and all its crisp, vivid imagery) has disappeared. There’s a good chance it’s my fault, but I’m going to say, officially, it was the wifi. So I’m going to do it over.

This is not the greatest post in the world; this is just a tribute.

I guess now it’s two weekend ago, the Ultimate Frisbee team had a Regional tournament hosted by Middlebury. That’s not close to Colby, so we had to stay over at my friend Carl’s house (he lives in Montpelier.) We didn’t play so hot, but, being from New York, that weekend was full of stuff I never had a chance to be a part of growing up.

First things first, before we even left for Vermont, I saw a snake on Runnals. Proof:

My friend Ian tried to catch it but he’s a chicken and thought it felt slippery even though, duh, they’re just scales. I was manning the camera. That was still in Maine.

To get to Vermont, we basically just drove directly west, through New Hampshire. I had never seen the White Mountains before. Check these bad Presidents out:

I think that’s Adams? I don’t know. Actually, maybe it’s good that this post got lost because my roommate just skied Tuckerman’s ravine this past weekend. Pretty rad.

Anyway, the real juicy bit is what happened on the ride back from the tournament. So of course, being a city boy, I’m talking to all the kids in my car about how I missed out on all this outdoorsy stuff when I was younger and how I blame my sub-par swimming ability on just not having access to bodies of water. Carl says to pull over, because there’s a swimming hole just up ahead.

I didn’t know what a swimming hole was. I hate being in the water because I’m not good at swimming, the water in this particular hole was probably around 35 degrees, and Carl didn’t know how deep the water was on the side of the rock we were going to jump off of because the side he usually jumps off of, facing upstream, had this swirling current thing going on. Carl went in headfirst.

The other three of us are standing there in just our compression shorts (because we had just come from the tournament) and obviously I want to just bail. But then Carl calls me a dirty name from the bank and I just jackhammer it. I couldn’t even tell you if the other kids jumped in; I spent too much time kissing the shore once I finally got there to see what they did.

And then we went to a maple syrup bottling place, like it was nothing. I think I got a pretty good taste of Vermont. Oh, and that day, Carl’s Mom came home with a 7 week old black lab puppy. Proof:

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I’m Free

Posted on April 22, 2013 by Julian Giarraputo '13

Space Day was a huge success, since I know you were wondering. My co-President and I were pretty worried about it because Wednesday happened to be the first beautiful day of the year, so we didn’t really know what was going to happen with the inflatable-albeit-indoor planetarium.

Turns out, thanks to some stellar advertising, our attendance was great – about 30 kids for each of the shows. Which turned out to be perfect, because it meant that the thing wasn’t too crowded and we didn’t have to turn anyone away (the biggest relief.) Here’s some of the ad stuff I did:


So that moon is the back of the invitation-style thing, and that’s a picture of how I stuck them into the study cubbies in Miller Library. All 200-ish of them. By myself. Anyway, it got the results that I wanted: great attendance for the planetarium (barely any people that I had even met before – a great indicator,) a superb showing for the rocket launches, and we even tacked on an observation night at the last minute that was probably the most populated out of any of the ones we’ve had this school year. And I gave away like 150 Space Club stickers. Hopefully, we made a big enough splash with the club this year that it’ll be part of the Colby scene for a long time coming.

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Space Day Forthcoming

Posted on April 14, 2013 by Julian Giarraputo '13

This thing has become the single-biggest source of stress in my life. It supercedes all homework assignments and social obligations, fills up my email inbox, dominates my small talk, keeps me up late and wakes me up early. I’m not even doing anything for it, really – I’m just worrying.

I’m still in the guerilla marketing phase of things. I took little stickers of rocket ships that said “Space Day April 17” and stuck them on the front of all the soda fountains so when the soda comes out it looks like the rocket is launching. Cute, right?

The physics department got my co-president and I astronaut costumes and we’re going to learn a hip-hop dance routine and perform it in Pulver during the week to generate buzz. That’s what’s on my mind right now. I have essays and screenings to worry about, but really I’m worried about the high rise of the one-piece costume and whether I’ll get stage fright.

But the inflatable planetarium is all set and it’s going to basically cost us nothing to get the model rocket stuff set up on Dana Lawn, so that’s all good news. We’re kind of at the mercy of the weather for that though. We also picked up a bunch of artwork from the George Mitchell Middle School of Saturn and other space stuff. It’s so adorable and we’re going to decorate the student center with it, along with posters and decorations we have made.

I want the day to come, but I also just want it to be over (and having been well-attended.) I hope people have fun!

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Where We’re Going, We Don’t Need Roads

Posted on April 9, 2013 by Julian Giarraputo '13

Sorry I’ve been posting so sporadically – senior spring is harder than you can even realize.

I’m at a weird point right now, and it’s because I can see how finite the college experience really is. We’ve got, what is it, 6 weeks left at this point? That’s not a lot of time, and seeing a number that small (which will only be getting smaller) really gets you to prioritize things.

What makes those 6 weeks seem even less significant is the fact that – pause for effect – I got a job! –Ish. I got an internship for 10 weeks this summer, so for at least 10 weeks this year I will be employed. It’s at Proof IC, which is Burson-Marsteller’s go at branching out into advertising, and I’m going to be copywriting. And you know what, I’m really lucky, because I must have sent out 30 job applications, and Proof was one of only a handful that got back to me. With good reason, though. I’m not studying advertising here, and aside from a campaign I’m running right now for a big space-themed day the Space Club is planning for next week, I haven’t really done anything that could fill a portfolio.

For a long time, I was really not into the concept of networking. You know, naïve old me and pipe dreams of a meritocracy. But I would be unemployed and (if the people I talked to in the business are right) at somewhat of a dead-end career wise if I didn’t use the employment channels made available to me. Aggressively use, at that. Here’s the degrees of Bacon – I go to Colby, where I go to school with a kid who’s dad is a VP at Johnson & Johnson, his dad got me a job in the communications department, that hires BM as an outside agency to handle bigger jobs which I asked for a tour of, and got showed around Proof and advised by a current copywriter, who held my hand through the application process and put in a good word for me. I don’t know how many degrees that is but that’s not the point anyway. The guy who showed me around is essentially going to be my mentor this summer. That’s the point.

The VP at J&J was a crazy nice guy and didn’t need to help me out as much as he did. But I knew where his office was and made sure he knew that I wanted to meet people in advertising. I’m not an employer, but I would think it’s good to let people know you have ambition.

Non-sequitor, Michael Hecht of NASA and MIT (a real life rocket scientist) is coming to speak at Colby this Thursday, which is going to be prefaced with the famous Colby cheese platter and followed by a screening of ‘Apollo 13.’ Yes this counts as part of my ad campaign.

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PTSBD

Posted on March 31, 2013 by Julian Giarraputo '13

Post traumatic spring break disorder, in case you were wondering.

I quite literally just got out of a rented, champagne-colored minivan that myself and a couple other members of the Frisbee team droved 24-hours straight from St. Simon’s Island in Georgia all the way up to Waterville. Actually, that’s a lie – I just got out of the shower because after all that time with 6 people in one moving car, I felt seriously rank.

The trip may have very well been a microcosm of life. We got down to Georgia last Saturday night and just chilled harder than anyway has ever chilled until the Ultimate Frisbee tournament started on Tuesday (the tournament is called High Tide.) From that point further, it was strictly business: get up early, play 3 games (each about 70 minutes long,) head back home and carbo-load, and then get to bed early so we could be ready for the next day of games.

Frisbee gets a lot of slack, but I’m sorry the sport I play also happens to be rad and fun and yours feels like a job. We all work hard on the team, and I feel like that effort gets undermined. Guess what? This year, our team made it all the way to the championship. 14 boys from a school with 1,800 kids beat schools state schools from NY, Wisconsin, Connecticut. Schools with thousands and thousands of kids, with access to outdoor fields to practice on (which we don’t have the luxury of 7 months out of the year.) We lost in the finals, because we were outmatched in terms of body-types. The average size of our player is probably 5’10” – the dude that beat us in the ‘ship was 6’5” (their offense ran through him.)

We got that far because we played as a team – our technique was on point, we don’t turn over the disc, and we play the harder man defense than anyone. Our next tournament is in 2 weeks and we expect big things.

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Groggy

Posted on March 17, 2013 by Julian Giarraputo '13

Sorry, I would’ve posted earlier but today is Doghead. I don’t expect you to know what that means, but I will tell you that Doghead is enough of a reason to come to Colby. The bullet points are I’ve been awake for 2 days straight, have been all around the campus at different parties and meeting up with different friends, saw the sunrise with everyone I know on the steps of Miller Library, went off to an off campus house and rocked out by a bonfire, got my face painted like a raccoon/Natalie Portman in Black Swan, and have spent the rest of the day trying to recover and eating pizza alone while watching TV reruns. I’m going light on details because I don’t really know what I’m allowed to write about here, but the point is, Doghead is a group activity that facilities a wild and unique stretch of 12ish hours. So have your own.

What I’m gearing up for right now is Spring Break. Every year, the Frisbee team goes down to Savannah, Georgia for a huge tournament, where the accents drip slow like molasses and where local cops love to give out arbitrary speed tickets to cars with out-of-state plates (I’m not allowed to drive Colby vehicles anymore, so thanks for that.) A 22-hour drive from Maine to Georgia in a straight shot. I’ve got a car with 5 other seniors in it and I have no doubt it is going to be wild. Do you guys know what ‘South of the Border’ is? “America’s favorite highway oasis,” a rest stop and attraction going down 95, replete with Mexican food and fireworks and rusted carnival rides. But standing in the way of that is me memorizing all 54 lines of Sammy Coleridge’s Kubla Khan and writing a 21 page story for my fiction class.

But I’m oh so close.

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I’m an Altruist

Posted on March 10, 2013 by Julian Giarraputo '13

Yesterday was my first day volunteering at George Mitchell Middle School, which is about a ten-minute drive from campus. Or, if you don’t have a car, a half hour taxi ride that includes 2 stops to pick up other people that are going in a similar direction but don’t have to be there at a specific time like I do. Next week I’m going to try to borrow a friend’s car.

Colby Volunteer Center (CVC) does a lot of work in the surrounding schools, and it’s pretty sweet – everyone that volunteers love it, and even though I thought that little kids would think it was ‘lame’ to get paired up with a mentor, they are actually really into it. I was talking to one of the 2nd graders that didn’t have a mentor and he told me so. He also asked me how he could get a mentor, but I was like, how should I know, this is my first day.

I’m part of a smaller group within CVC, called ARC. Which just sounds better than what it stands for: Adults Reading to Children. Yeah, that’s basically all we do, but still, juice that up a little bit.

I chose to do ARC instead of full-blown CVC because even though I killed it in the 2nd grade, I don’t think I could handle being responsible for the development of someone else right now. I know a lot of people say this in jest, but I actually do have a hard enough time taking care of myself, and if a little kid starts crying because he’s got a lot going on and his life is getting complicated, I’ll start crying too, because, ditto.

So I take kids in groups of 3 and we read a picture book together, because I’m good at reading and because that’s what I study in college. Today’s book was about a possum in Australia, where I happened to study abroad.  The kids are great, they ask a lot of questions and are completely shameless. The only beef I really have with this program is that I’m reading to these kids right before recess. I mean, come one, keeping a 2nd grader’s attention is hard enough and I am barely qualified to engage my peers – kids are just trying to get this story over with quick so they can go play in the snow. And I’m all like, nah I’m going to teach you about Adelaide, you can keep looking at the door all you want I’m not letting you go anywhere until we find out how to make this rodent un-invisible. Oh, spoiler alert.

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A Pair of Jeans that Fits Just Right

Posted on February 26, 2013 by Julian Giarraputo '13

So I just came from a screening of “Pandaemonium,” which is a Sammy T. Coleridge biopic. Apparently, Williams Wordsworth was a manipulative snake and, when used in moderation, opium will make you famous. College is for learning.

I completely forgot to post last week about my friend’s band having played here, which I feel really bad about. My roommate freshman year joined an already established band on campus called The Joint Chiefs – a name I thought was stupid until I learned that the JCS was a thing, which made me further realize that I have some growing up to do. Also that I should probably read more.

Anyway, this band has stayed together even when the members started graduating, and now they’re kind of a big deal around here. Like, they used to play on campus for free but for their latest show I had to pay $5 to get in. They’ve played shows in New York, Boston, all around Maine – mostly covers but some original stuff too. Here’s a picture of them here at Colby:

My friend is the drummer. His name is Carson. I guess the singer is also a friend, but he calls me Jules and I hate that, so in retaliation he can stay anonymous. All the kids are Colby grads/students except for the keyboard player, who Carson knew from high school and who currently goes to Berklee. You should hear these guys play “Chicken Fried;” I’m no country boy but seriously that song makes me feel like it would be all right to get tossed out of the bed of a pickup.

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TEDxColby College

Posted on February 25, 2013 by Julian Giarraputo '13

Sorry, I would have updated the blog yesterday but my plate was kind of full already. Yesterday was Colby College’s first TEDx conference, put together almost entirely by students.

 

I was part of the team, but I want to give a special shout out to Jacob, Ryan, and Max who really went H.A.M this last week to make sure everything was prepared and though out. And really, for something that was put together by students, it was shockingly error-free.

Here are some great pics from the event (I run/ran the Facebook page):

Ostrove Auditorium was completely transformed, as we and PPD put up black curtains, set the screens, put up additional lighting, and even handed out free little notepads and pens with TEDx stickers on them. Pretty legit.

 

The talks themselves were great. I was running the guest check-in table for the majority of the event, so a lot of them I’ll have to wait until their uploaded onto youtube to see, but the ones I did see were amazing. But each talk ran for about 15 minutes and ranged from Physics to Poker to Yiddish to Human Rights and more. Actually, here’s a copy of the program:

It was a ridiculously long day. I had to get there at 7, the even started at 10, and we didn’t leave until 5. And I ate so much cheese and cookies and drank so much coffee that by the end of it I thought I was going to blow chunks, but I made it and it was really worth it. I don’t know that Colby has ever had something like this happen before, and I was glad to be a part of it.

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