Guys, this is my third year at Brown and I feel like a freshman. It’s my first Spring Weekend ever, and I have absolutely no idea what to expect. For those who don’t know what Spring Weekend is (a.k.a., my parents), it is an annual event curated by the Brown Concert Agency (BCA) in which concerts are held all weekend on the Main Green. Some people drink, others experiment with psychedelics, and overall, it’s supposedly a pretty electric time. This year’s Spring Weekend is the first in-person one since 2019 (thanks Covid), and the artists include Flo Milli, Ari Lennox, and Amaarae. If we’re being 100% honest, I have never heard of any of them.
By the time this article comes out, the notorious weekend will be mostly over. Right now, however, I’m sitting in the Sci-Li, feverishly scrolling on Revolve to try and find an outfit that is cute yet edgy, colorful yet refined, and bold but not too bold. This leads me to my first set of questions: what do I wear? What if the weather sucks and all I have is a sundress? How do you make a raincoat cute?
My second set of questions deals with scheduling. What time do I have to be where? Who hosts the pre- and post- concert festivities? When do I eat? Is food provided? Or am I on my own in the meal department? If you think I can survive a day of dancing (and drinking) on merely an on-the-go cliff bar, you’re sorely mistaken. I’m thinking: big breakfast, lots of packed snacks.
Thinking about the actual concerts gives me a fair amount of anxiety. I am not a lady who loves crowded spaces, particularly those filled with my inebriated contemporaries. What if I lose my friends? Addie, that’s why you have a phone. Okay, fine. Next question: What if someone gets hurt in the crowd? What if I get hurt in the crowd? I guess it’s a big weekend for Brown EMS. What if I get sick from the long weekend of germs and I can’t get all my work done next week?
Okay, here’s another one, try and follow along: What if the concert is not fun, so I start feeling intense ROJI (regret of joining in), but I’m too nervous to go home and feel FOMO (fear of missing out), but I get over that fear and go home, but then something awesome happens, so I do get FOMO, and then I confine myself to an eternity of wondering what might have been? This one’s a little satirical, I’ll admit, but as you can see, I am an anxious girlie.
It seems like I’m really going to have to adopt a kind of go-with-the-flow mentality in order to enjoy the weekend. This leads me to my final and most important question: how does one adopt a go-with-the-flow mentality?!
Happy Spring Weekend!