Though the origins of the What Have We Done blog date back to freshman year, the truth is, the What Have We Dones began the second we started forming personalities. We recently uncovered one home video of Seanie dramatically performing a song she composed called “I like myself” and another of Amanda’s failed attempt to walk on water.
This week we had a few flashbacks to the days of old, which made us realize that those days don’t feel very old at all. Childhood photos show us wearing tutus, boas, overalls, pigtails and more, but then again, so do some photos we’ve taken this term. We’ll chalk it up to a case of the child at heart, where we’ll never stop mourning the death of recess, and naptime will forever be sacred.
Seanie: Several days ago, in the throes of lying in bed doing nothing, I decided to check my old AOL account for whatever reason. A few things about this to note: first, in a surprising turn of events, the AOL website has in fact been redesigned since 2007. Second, if you played Neopets as child and didn’t turn off email notifications, there will be hundreds from Neopets in your inbox, mostly notifying you in euphemisms that your pets are nearing death because you have left them to starve alone for eight years.
A really bizarre and nostalgic sense of motherly urgency overcame me upon the sight of these emails, and I spent the next several minutes going through the process of recovering my Neopets username and password. When I eventually logged on, I saw that I had four pets. Their names were MysticalWaterFriend, PrincesDiamndSparklz, PrinceBulbousHead and SwiftRiverPhoenix.
I am fascinated for several reasons. Somehow, I was old enough to know the meaning of the word “bulbous” but too young to know that it’s not an affectionate adjective to describe the head of a pet. Also, what? I know I was a strange child — I had an “I like myself” song, and then there were my three imaginary friends named Tete, Weegee and Goba, which would be fairly standard, except I hated Tete and used to get mad when she came to the tea parties that my own imagination invited her to.
But mostly I’m fascinated because I feel such a kinship with the girl who unabashedly did these types of things, and I kind of wish I still did now. When I told a group about Tete and the Neopets, she seemed to find it neither particularly familiar nor particularly amusing. I write this in the hopes that you will get me.
Amanda: This past week, I was lucky enough to have had the chance to spend some quality time with my little cousins. My family has always been one to divide things up according to age group. We have the “kid table” and the “adult table,” the “fruit punch bowl” and the “Absolut punch bowl.” The list goes on.
It was during this most recent family reunion that I realized I am at that awkward age between six and sixty, which makes me a bit of an outcast from both groups. The harsh reality of my loner status hit when my kid cousin initially denied my access to the playroom with the simple question, “How old are you, 50?”
I quickly saved face by announcing that I was 21, pointing to the adults asking, “Do I really look like them?” After I tricked little Noah and the rest of his crew into believing I was yet a child, I was granted full access to the downstairs TV room, where my cousins and I proceeded to eat Chex Mix and Cheetos for dinner, watch a movie I’d never heard of on Disney Channel and play a Bernstein Bears board game for the remainder of the evening. The adults call this babysitting, but little did they know.
We’ve said before that the end is coming, but we still don’t have a complete conception of what that really means. Maybe this year will be our last hurrah for playing dress-up, although there’s no denying that people around here look more normal decked out in flair than they do dressed up in business casual. Perhaps sitting at the adult table will someday seem appealing, kind of like how Seanie used to hate tomatoes but now loves them and can’t seem to remember why she was ever repulsed by them in the first place (this does not apply to Amanda — she still hates tomatoes). Many things remain indefinite and unknown, but on another slightly related note, we firmly believe Dartmouth students would benefit from the addition of a tetherball court and a set of monkey bars on the Green and the institution of recess between 10As and 2As.
Yours not girls, not yet women, Lucy & Ethel
