Tonight, Anna Wintour reminds people why she, her job, and print media are worth it. Get it, girl.
Tonight is perpetually in Vogue Anna Wintour’s “Fashion’s Night Out” event. It’s an excuse for celebrities, designers, the high brow, and the low brow to come together throughout the five Boroughs of New York City, encouraging people to spend money that they might not have in the name of fashion and the economy.
I wonder if Annie Leibovitz will be participating…
Last night, I experienced my own kind of night out. Several NESCAC schools, including my own, were hosting a post-college, “in the city” event. That’s right, last night throughout major cities in the US of A, people that I went to school with and other small, liberal artsy graduates congregated and drank.
It’s pretty much what you’d expect: Lots of kids in khakis discussing their current plight, reminiscing, and speaking about their former $50,000 a year lives in the confines of campuses and cold winters.
There were also many embarrassing encounters. Sample dialogue:
“Hi, I’m Scott. What’s your name?”
“You should know who I am. You’ve been to my house. In San Francisco.”
The formal affair took place at Pier 23 along the Embarcadero, quite possibly the most WTF location for an event like this. When I got there, however, it made sense. The back of the bar resembled the Portland, ME harbor, wind and all.
Of course, it was unbearable running into people that didn’t give me the time of day in college. Likewise, 2006 graduates spoke of their totally awesome off-campus apartments to the fresh-faced 2009 hotties. More sample dialogue:
“You may remember me. I lived at X off-campus address when you were a freshman. Yeah, we had lots of parties.”
To quote a student-made, Bates College t-shirt — Yes, you had lots of parties… in “Lewiston Fucking Maine.”
If I sound bitter and defensive, it’s probably because I am.
I love running into former friends from college, but in all honesty – I keep in touch with the friends that I want to talk to. Sure, there are college friends who slip through the cracks. However, I know that when I run into them, it will be lots of fun. Unfortunately, events like this are more like high school for me than high school actually was. And I loved college.
Several things that I learned:
- 2009 graduates are all unemployed and living at home and asking me for job advice.
- I’m kind of incapable of giving career advice.
- Even in a post-college state, Colby, Bates, Bowdoin, and other NESCAC schools are segregated, even when you are standing five feet away from each other.
- People that have good jobs brag about them. Then they get laid-off or leave and have their own start-up.
- After having received calls from friends attending this event on the East Coast, their experiences were similar.
After more than my fare share of encounters that could be only described as epic fails, I found myself scurrying to the back part of the bar’s deck. A group of equally jaded individuals noticed the goofy and dismayed look on my face. They yelled for me to pull up a chair.
We talked about the event and our lives honestly.
I remembered why I loved college.
Fortunately, I’m in a place – even in a state of unemployment – where I’m happy to move on from the life that was and look toward the future. In the process, maybe, just maybe, I’ll make some new friends that I missed out on during my college years. People that are able to see the humor in the trials and tribulations of our collective young lives.
And Ms. Wintour, feel free to send me some clothes from Macy’s that don’t include various stains that won’t come out or holes that aren’t designer-approved. I’m getting more and more disheveled as the days go on and I have an image and my dignity to uphold.
