This week’s Campus Celebrity needs no introduction. Cem Barbaros Manisali is only a freshman at Connecticut College, but everyone knows exactly who he is– and he loves it that way! You’ve seen him in action, and now read on to learn more about “botherology,” his favorite Harris meal, and basically everything you could ever want to know about the friendliest and funniest guy on campus!!Â
Year: Freshman
Hometown: Sunnyside Queens, NYC
Major: Probs French because I already speak French and I’m already at the 300 level, so it would be mad easy to finish. Then do like a semester abroad–then just take whatever class I want– ayyy!!
Minor: Swag
Extracurricular Activities: I work at the IT Desk and I have a lot of side businesses. I do custom apparel/graphic design. Besides that, I do hardware/software repair fixing. Anything along those lines. I can train and coach people, I am a good motivator. Back in the day, I was big into weightlifting. But now I’ve become more monk like, loving everyone, instead of trying to out-tough everyone. I’ve become more mellow in that sense. I’m about that life.
What is your favorite thing about Conn? Definitely that I can totally bother everyone and it’s totally okay. That’s definitely my favorite part, by far. It’s validated bother-ology.
What are your three favorite spots on campus?
1) Cro second floor balcony: “Eagle’s Nest.” It’s the table right next to the door that goes into the hallway. It’s the Eagle’s Nest because you can swoop down *caw* and talk to people you want and not say hi to people you don’t want to. Protect your eggs at the nest, swoop down and get your field mice. Why not?
2) 62 Room, that’s like my favorite spot. There are dances there all the time. I go HAM at the dances. I thrive on the dances, I thrive at the dances, right? I love dancing.
3) Library basement– you can find a bunch of crews there. The Library smokers crew, library alternative crew, library peacoat crew–lots of crews down there. That’s where I work, the IT desk is there, Blue Camel is there. Everything you need to survive for a week is there.
Life motto: About that life
Inspirations? Genuineness, inspires me. Being genuine.
Favorite Harris meal: Can I describe the entire thing? So what I’ll do is go to my man Fadee who makes the eggs and get two sunny-side up eggs each with a slice of cheese on it. Chicken pattie underneath it. Then add some fries on top. Then make awesome sauce. Awesome sauce is 3 barbeque sauce, 3 honey mustard, 2 ketchup, little bit of hot sauce and a little bit of sriracha. That’s awesome sauce, you just drizzle that on top and it’s a beautiful (so bad for you) meal–and it’s just like beautiful.
If you could bring one thing on a desert island what would it be? I would bring a person obviously, because what am I without other people?
Describe your personality? Totes broski
What do you want to be when you grow up? Monk
What are your plans for the summer? I’m going to be a camp counselor at a summer camp in Turkey; I’m going to be immersing kids in English. They won’t know that I speak Turkish until the end, it will be like a surprise, they will only get to speak English with me. I will basically do fun activities with them.
How was your transition to college? Beautiful, literally greatest place. I couldn’t ask for more. I’m growing everyday. I’m about that life, but I’m getting more and more about that life. It hasn’t been seamless, I’ve gotten the cold shoulder sometimes but you know what, when you fall down you get back up stronger.
Can you give a brief explanation of “about that life”? So basically it started a few years ago and it’s stuck like glue. There are a few things I use a lot… “Classic ____” and “About that _____ life” or “that _____ lifestyle though”. The reason why I use that all the time is because if I say just a word it isn’t a complete thought, but if I say it’s classic, it becomes a thought. It takes a single idea and changes it into a complete thought in a way to minimize hurting people. It is whatever you interpret it as. If I explain about that life, it cheapens it because it’s my interpretation of it.
What do you do in your free time?  Dance a lot, sometimes it’ll be like 2 am I’ll go to the Cro dance studios, get my dance on. Often times I’ll just bother everyone, like go out of my way to talk to people and bother them. Because I think that bothering is a form of acknowledging people. Even if it’s positive or negative bothering it’s acknowledging someone and I think that’s a beautiful thing. Also I’ll stroll around a lot, I love my strolls. When you’re around so many people all the time you need time by yourself to remain balanced, often times I’ll just stroll a lot and find that balance inside myself.
What is one thing that you would like to share with the campus community? I love all you guys. You’re beautiful people, know that, internalize that fact.
How do you feel about being campus celeb? I’m about that life.
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Shout out to Jake Faris for giving me a great haircut
Announcement: About that life t-shirts are coming out after Spring Break, $10, Eurofit, good quality, I’ll be selling them, you’ll know about it, don’t worry. They’ll be in funky spring colors, like banana-creme-yellow and turkwise-turquoise, poppin blue, deep-lavender. Â