…I threw up at mine…just off the sidewalk…as all of the other participants walked by.

In hindsight, this story is pretty funny, but it certainly wasn’t while I was actually there.  My orientation was one of the first experiences I’d had at a university with people other than my high school classmates or my family.  It was also the first time I met my freshman year roommate, and bless her, she handled what happened as well as anyone could.

Here’s a little backstory.  My parents and I made the three hour drive to my undergrad university the night before orientation, as it was scheduled to start relatively early and we didn’t want to have to get up during the wee hours of the morning just to get there on time.  Unfortunately, I didn’t get much sleep that night, which meant that I was tired the entire first day of orientation.  Ordinarily this wouldn’t have been that much of a problem, except that this time, it was combined with nerves, excessive heat (yay early summer in Tennessee), and a lack of water consumption, which all lead to disaster.

For the most part, the first morning of orientation went relatively smoothly.  I met my roommate and her parents, we went around to the different orientation sessions, and then we went to have lunch, which is where things began to go awry.  I don’t fully remember what I had for lunch that day, but I distinctly remember they had sliced raw squash.  Now I, as a squash lover, was excited and took a couple of pieces, only to discover that one piece was weirdly grainy.  I proceeded to eat it anyway, which I have considered a mistake ever since. 

After lunch I met back up with my parents to go to another orientation session, and it was during the next hour and a half that I started to feel really ill.  I had had a headache for a little while at that point, I was starting to feel lightheaded, and my stomach felt decidedly off.  My parents gave me some of the emergency candy they had, which was an unfortunate combo of grape and watermelon flavors, and while it helped initially, the relief was short lived.  I also took an ibuprofen to try to get rid of my headache.

When the session ended, I was feeling a little better, so I went with my future roommate to our next session.  Except I never made it. 

We were unfortunately close to the front of the mass of future students.  I made it about 20 feet beyond the doors of the auditorium building when I turned to my roommate, said I wasn’t going to make it, then leaned off the edge of the sidewalk and left my lunch in the grass.  A few hundred kids walked by me with their group leaders until someone finally noticed what was happening and helped me.  Meanwhile, my poor roommate was panicking and trying to figure out what to do.  When I could finally talk again, I sent her to find our parents, who were understandably concerned at what had occurred. 

When I had finally finished hurling, the nice orientation lady, who I now realize was probably not much older than I was, took me to a bathroom to clean up before sending me on my way to dinner.  Yes, I had missed whatever group bonding activity they had planned for us and had to pretty much go straight to eating after throwing up.  Fortunately, they had bland food like bread and chips at dinner, so I was able to eat something before going off to do more stuff.  I was fine the next day, thanks to my ability to recover from such events quickly, and was able to finish orientation without too much hassle.

This wasn’t the only time I threw up at college, but it was the only time I did so in broad daylight (thank goodness).  I think I made more of a first impression on the school than it did on me, especially since some of the other students were talking about “that girl who threw up earlier” during the second day of orientation.  Over time though, this just became another story to add to my list and a memory that I can look back on and have a little chuckle about.