Raf Week

Once upon a time, in an area across the woods there was a small, yet renowned, college called Transylvania. President Thomas Jefferson likened it with Harvard and said "We must send our children for education to Kentucky [Transylvania] or Cambridge [Harvard]... if we are to go begging anywhere for an education, I would rather it should go to Kentucky...". All was well at Transylvania College until one fateful day in the year 1826, disaster struck. Botany Professor, Constantine Rafinesque (pictured left), was fired by Transylvania President Horace Holley. Officially his dismissal was in response to "unprofessional conduct." Myth, however, suggests that the Botany professor may have been 'tending the gardens' of the President Holley's wife and the enraged President Holey sought vengence. Upon departure from Transylvania, Rafinesque exclaimed a curse on the hallowed school in Kentucky...

Rafinesque died years later in 1840. At this point he was so poor he was only afforded a pauper's grave with other bodies already present. Before his death, even, the curse had already manifested itself. In 1827, a year after Raf's departure, Kentucky cut all funding from Transylvania College, stunting any growth the University had hoped to acheive. President Holly resigned in protest and died a few months later.

In 1924 in an attempt to cease the curse that would, as time passed, be blamed for fires, economic troubles, and deaths at Transylvania every 7 years, friends of the University launched a massive fundraising effort to exume Rafinesque's body and have it entombed in the administration building Old Morrison. The problem? Rafinesque was, as previously mentioned, burried in a plot with numerous other bodies and the people in charge of moving the body may have got it wrong...
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Now, back in the present, Transy students celebrate this ghastly tale during the week before Halloween and name it "Raf Week". Scary movies are shown every night, ghost tours are given, bonfires are had. This past weekend, to start it all off, Transy students were given free tickets to ScreamPark, a massively fun 'haunted' attraction a few minutes away from campus. I went with my friends and had an absolute blast! Transy doesn't have a homecoming (no football!) so this kind of takes its place.
The best, and perhaps scariest, part of Raf week is that 4 (un)lucky students are selected to spend the night in Raf's tomb. The question is, though, will they make it out? I love Halloween, so this whole week, I already know, is going to be a blast! I'll definitely let you know how it goes (maybe I will get to spend the night with the body believed to be Old Raffy!)

Have a Haunted Week! (Don't forget, Transy has an open house on Halloween for prospective students! Come by and definitely say Hi if you see me!)

- Jake Ryan Hawkins

*The source of information for the history of the curse of Rafinesque was "Haunted Halls of Ivy: Ghosts of Southern Colleges and Universities" by Daniel W. Barefoot

Friendship...

Hey guys. It’s Jake coming to you live from the Bluegrass Parkway. Don’t worry; I am in the passenger seat! It is fall break at Transy. Originally my plans did not include going home. I don’t have a vehicle and it would mean several four hour drives for my parents.(To Lexington, back home, to Lexington again, and back home again!) However pressing circumstances have occurred. Sadly, my best friend’s dad passed away this weekend. In response, my other best friend, who goes to a nearby college, and I are heading home to be with her.

Though the circumstances aren’t exactly ideal, this is a good time to talk about friendship. I know when I was planning for college I had a hard time dealing with the fact that I would be going to a separate college than all of my friends. My circle of friends in high school had a very diverse mix of personalities. As such, we had diverse needs in a college. Naturally, we all had to choose somewhere different to cater to those specific needs.

I won’t lie, leaving friends behind sucks. To balance it out, though, meeting new friends is really great. The best part of it all is that your “high school friends” will always be there. Though you may not talk on the phone every day, though you may only see each other on breaks, nothing changes. When you do get to see your friends again, no matter what distances between schools separate you, it is just like it was in "old times".

Making new friends at Transy has been a great experience. No new group of friends, however, can ever replace an old group- but that is great! Now I have an even wider and more diverse number of friends. Never look for a replacement in friends, it won’t happen.

To use names that probably won’t mean much to you, but mean the world to me: I could never find an Elise at Transy- no one is corny, zany, or goofy enough. Nor could I find a Bre anywhere else. No one is caring, wise, and awesome enough. I would never find a Shelley anywhere else-- no one is sufficiently hardworking, blunt, and loyal enough to come close.

I can, though, find a Cory at Transy, someone who brings intelligence, creativity, and quirkiness into every conversation. I can find a Quincy, a perfect mix of sarcasm and thoughtfulness. I can find a Kelsi- the best rep of the “North Side” Lexington has to offer, and I can find an Anna, the nicest Arian/Nazi you will ever meet! (Just a note- she isn’t really a Nazi, it is definitely an inside joke politely poking fun at her 'perfect' blond hair and blue eyes).

Once you get to College, no matter what college you do eventually choose, your life will be enhanced. You will gain awesome new friends (don’t worry, I promise you that you will) but you won’t lose your old ones, and if, heaven forbid, something happens where you need your friends, both from college and high school, by your side they will come calling-- even if it means a four hour drive home and missed classes.

Until Next Time,
Jake Ryan Hawkins

Ελληνική ζωή

Hey! Glad to see you are back. I am a little late in publishing this week. I had a rather busy weekend. I went home for the first time so that I could go to my brother's wedding. Anyway, I guess the old adage of "better late than never" comes to mind.

I think I owe you guys a story about Greek Life so that's what I will talk about today. Just a little FYI I used an internet translator to make the tile for this blog. It allegedly says "Greek Life" in greek. So there you have it.

Before I begin to talk in depth about my impression of the Greek community on campus we need to set a few ground rules. Nothing big though.

Rule 1 (and the most important): Forget everything you think you know about Greek Life. Now don't misread that and think I am saying you are dumb or something. The fact is Transy Greek Life is so insanely different than any other campus. Transy is ranked 4th in the nation for Greek Life for a reason, after all.

Rule 2: As a prospective student don't ask anyone their affiliation.
This isn't really a rule in that you won't get in trouble if you do ask. It's just affiliated people are not allowed to tell prospective students (or even first-years until the second week of school) their affiliation. I can tell you, however, that I am an independent. Meaning I am not a member of a fraternity.

Ok, so those are really the only rules I can thing of. Just a heads up, from this point on everything I say will be about the male Greek scene. As a member of the male species I was not allowed to participate in sorority recruitment so I can't speak about it with any accuracy.

So anyway, I came to Transy completely turned off to the idea of Greek Life. I didn't plan on rushing. Luckily, though, I was talked into going through the rush process... I am so glad I did. There is really no reason why anyone should not go through rush. It is free, you meet people, you get free stuff and you have fun. Seriously, if you take anything from this post let it be this: go through rush.

During rush I got to hang out with guys while grilling out, had a formal meal, hang out in the greek halls, and met some people, first-years and upperclassmen, who will be some of my best friends here at Transy.

After rush is over there is bid day/running out. At Transy, those who pledge to a fraternity run out, in front of everyone, and crowd surf through their chosen chapter. It is such a high-energy and fun afternoon. These pictures hardly do it justice.

So all in all, just don't stress about it. There is really no way to make a decision about Greek Life without being on campus and seeing it firsthand. Even though I am an independant, I think the Greek system at Transy is amazing.

Next week is fall break (two days at least...) so I will definitely be getting some much needed rest!

Until next time,

Jake Hawkins

Needing Help and Knowing When to Ask For It.

Hey guys, welcome back to the Transy Blogosphere! I am going to have to start this blog out by announcing a change in itinerary. I know I told you all that I would talk about Greek Life for this blog, but due to a few complications I am going to hold off until next week on the Greek blog. I am sure at this point you are interested to know about the reasoning behind the change. Rest assured, next week I will let you know. Right now there are just a few knots that need to be untied before I can accurately report my perspective on “Going Greek”.

Anyway, this week has been pretty stressful on my end. Classes are now in full swing which means homework, studying, exams, papers and general busyness. I remember before I came to college reading a book called “The Naked Roommate: And 107 Other Issues You Might Run Into in College”. (picture left.) In it the author, Harlan Cohen, talked about how it was around the 4th and 5th week of school that first-years started feeling the most stressed. Well, I can personally attest that this is true. Since we have last talked I have had an exam worth 10% of my grade in Intro to US Politics, a four page formal paper for Foundations of Liberal Arts (FLA), an analyses paper for Philosophy, and this week I will have an exam in Latin: pretty heavy stuff.

There is a bright side, however. Halfway through the week I was feeling pretty stressed and just needed some help. I really had no idea how to start my analyses paper in Philosophy, and in Latin I had been having a really hard time memorizing all the different declensions (don’t ask—I can’t explain them well). I remembered all the professors talking about office hours, and I decided I would give them a try. I am so glad I did.

I went into my philosophy professor’s office first, and I didn’t have any idea what to even ask. I just knew that I needed help understanding what I was supposed to do for the analyses paper. I walked in his office and said exactly that. He immediately started working his pedagogic magic, and within minutes I was ready to get started on the paper with an air of confidence (Speaking of which, it is five days later and I still haven’t started on it and it is due at midnight tomorrow….).
I went to my Latin professor’s office too. I’ll go ahead and admit, though, that it wasn’t voluntary. I was handed back a quiz that I performed dismally on with the ominous note: “We need to discuss this… see me after class.” So, naturally, I did as I was told. I went in afraid that I was going to be lectured, but instead the professor helped me figure out exactly what was giving me so much trouble. He even offered me some amazingly useful advice on how to memorize things more effectively.

So the moral of this story: Transy professors are so amazingly helpful and accessible. Every single professor has mandatory office hours (I think they are required to spend the same amount of time in office as they do in class) and they want you to use those hours. Beyond that, all of my professors gave us their personal phone numbers in case we needed them after hours, and email is extremely helpful too. I even received an almost immediate reply to an email I sent to a professor at 1am!

So there is something else to think about when trying to get a vivid image of life at Transy. Like I said, next week is for sure, and without a doubt, going to be spent discussing Greek Life so you can mark your calendars!

Until then,

Jake Ryan Hawkins