April showers bring…May dips? Read about Barnard junior Emma’s experience partaking in one of St. Andrews’ oldest traditions:
I rang in the month of May by running into the North Sea at dawn. In one of the more insane traditions here at St. Andrews, every May, thousands of students strip down (sometimes fully!) and plunge themselves into freezing water to cleanse themselves of academic sins and herald in good luck for the upcoming exams period. And we thought the primal scream was fun!
May Dip is the most insane thing I’ve ever done. Unquestionably so. Those who know me know I’m hardly a risk taker: I wear seat belts in cabs and am never without Purell to combat subway pole plague. But, coming out of the sea at 5:33 AM after a night spent in the spirit of the patron God of Columbia, Bacchus, I felt aggressively alive.
On the heels of an exceptionally hard fall semester at CU, during which I very nearly lost sight of my identity, this semester at St. Andrews has been incredibly restorative. 2016 has been a year of big change for me, this sleepy fishing town on the east coast of Scotland has been just the place to solidify The New Me ©. While New York is a magical place, it has been amazing to get away. I needed to take a step back. While I miss my family and friends enormously, coming to St Andrews this year has been one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.
Running into 43° water in a bikini, the sun just peaking up over the horizon, I felt invincible. The minute my head went under, it was as if all the nonsense from 2015 had disappeared. The experience was so visceral people around me were moved to tears.
After the Dip, we toweled off, bundled up, and headed to the bonfire. Everyone looked terrible, with wet hair, smudged makeup, and groutfits galore, fielding incoming hangovers from an evening that was a little too fun, but none of that mattered. For the first time in a while, I felt part of a community. I’m only here for the semester (a so-called “JSA,” or Junior Semester Abroad) and while I’ve made some lifetime friends here, I’ve also felt like a visitor. But as I watched the sun come up amidst thousands of cold strangers, I was part of something bigger.
Were my toes so cold they hurt? Yes.
Would I do it again in a heartbeat? Also yes.