[goodnews.inc]

by SARRAH LAL, IRC VP of Communications

So, you're new at Mac.

Moving into residence this year?

Everyone who lived in residence during their first year remembers their first day - especially the moving in part.

Oh, you will remember it ALL too: the people in colourful jumpsuits being SUPER PUMPED to see you... boxes and suitcases in various stages of being taken out of the car... swarms of people just like you with the exact same ‘omg what is going on, Mom/Dad stop embarrassing me’ expressions... happy parents (sometimes more excited at the prospect of getting their kids out of the house than the people who are actually moving out)...

Basically, it’s LOUD. It’s kinda HECTIC. And the thing running through your mind, louder than all the yelling and cheering around you:

...this is SOO not high school anymore.

Which is a good thing, right?! Time to grow up and start living your life on YOUR OWN. Sure it can be scary at times... but if you’re anything like me, you couldn’t wait for this day to actually come!

During my first year at Mac, I lived in Wallingford Hall (aka Wally), the all-girls residence on-campus. Although the building is pretty darn tiny (only 76 girls live there).. I must admit that I’d been in love with the building ever since I’d gone on a tour of it during the August Orientation Day. Tea room with a piano? Check. Antique furniture? Check. A basement common room with mirrors spanning the entire wall and a SOWING machine?! Um, hello! In case you were wondering, no I didn’t use the sowing machine (I don’t think anyone did)... but the point is, I felt right at home immediately!

And the best part? The girls who lived there were truly some of the sweetest girls I have ever met. It's the PEOPLE that make the building.

Anyways, back to my story! So, I had just arrived at Mac. Amidst all the crazy Reps sporting colourful jumpsuits, there were figures dressed in WHITE jumpsuits who immediately stood out. Some of them were directing traffic. Others were helping people move into residence.


Okay, so my initial reaction was “They look like they're wearing PAINTER'S uniforms with colourful things drawn onto them!!” The thing is, painters most definitely don't have maroon t-shirts with white writing which says “Inter-Residence Council” across the front! But, whatever. At that point in time, I didn't pay too much attention to this since I was still in the car trying to find Wally!

My parents and I continued driving, attempting to get to my residence building. When we finally did, Welcome Week Reps SWARMED us and began taking my stuff up to my room!! Though I'm sure they would have managed on their own (there were so many..) I felt like I had to help them out. It was MY stuff after all! So I started to take my things out of the car, casually turned around to begin taking it into the building... and then BAM.

IT WAS THEM AGAIN.

Maroon IRC t-shirts. White jumpsuits. So happy. So.. hyper. Let's be honest here, though they were very enthusiastic to see me, I was a very shy first-year... I probably just muttered "hi" and continued my way into Wally. Kinda hoping it would be safer there...

After unpacking my bags somewhat, and ensuring my mom that I would keep my room clean (which, by the way, definitely did not happen) I bid a somewhat tearful farewell to my parents and went outside to join my fellow Wally girls.

At this point, all the Welcome Week Reps introduced themselves. Their names? Bubbles, Trooper, Wide Load, Poe, Sailor Moon... these weren’t their real names, of course (they wouldn’t tell us until the end of Welcome Week.. so this was kinda fun!) But near the end of these introductions, the two people in white Rep suits and maroon IRC T-shirts introduced themselves. Their names? “Callen” and “Caitlin”. Haha, clever! They were trying to be extra sneaky by using “real” fake names... oh, I thought I had everything figured out!

I think someone noticed this as well because they asked them why they had such “normal” Rep names. Well... apparently these were their real names. Wait.. what?! Yeah. Welcome Week Reps got to make up names for Welcome Week... so why didn’t they?! As I soon learned, there is a difference between a building Welcome Week Rep and an Inter-Residence Council (IRC) Welcome Week Rep. These IRC Reps actually lived in the building throughout the year, while the Building Reps didn’t. Turns out that Callen and Caitlin lived just a few doors down from me, so I got to see them a lot more during the course of the week (and the entire year)!

So that was just the beginning of my first year at Mac.