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A Series of Unfortunate Events: Summer ’22 (Part One)

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at U Mass Amherst chapter.

Before anything, I’d like the readers to acknowledge the fact that everything you’re about to read happened to me during the summer of 2022. As much as I felt really low while these things were happening, I am now glad that I have a conversation starter and something to say when people ask for a “fun fact” on the first day of classes.

The summer holiday officially began when my sister and I dragged our luggage out to the bus stop in the pouring rain early in the morning. I had it all planned for the Hot Girl Summer we very much deserved after a whole semester of quarantines and health scares. We got an Instagrammable apartment for a month in Manhattan, New York where I got a callback from a modeling agency for a test shoot. Most of my friends would be in the Big Apple at certain points during the summer, which meant we’d be able to do a lot of activities together. I was also looking for an internship in the city, so I was sure I had it all figured out. This was going to be the best summer yet.

The surprise I left on the bus

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Fast forward to the Peter Pan bus, and I realized I missed two meals: dinner from the night before and breakfast from that morning. Already feeling queasy from the lack of food in me for the past who-knows-how-many hours, I decided to get donuts and a mango iced tea from Dunkin’ once we reached Springfield. Not long before arriving at our final destination, that queasy feeling visited once again. This time, it came with a surprise package. I darted toward the toilet knowing what was coming, and sure enough, I left the surprise upchuck package right there on that bus. It was a great start to a Hot Girl Summer.

Biting into the Big Apple

How Did New York City Get Its Nickname the Big Apple

We finally arrived after a two-hour delay and one of my friends came to pick me up to go to the apartment I rented.

To our surprise, there was no lift in the building, so we had to carry three full-sized overweight bags up to the third floor only to find that the bathroom was moldy. It was so bad that I thought the soap dish was a fur carpet. Cries were heard, complaints were filed, and the day passed.

The ‘modeling’ shoot

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Over the next few days in NYC, my sister and I just focused on why we were here in the first place: for me to do the photoshoot and maybe hear good news back from it. We tried to clean the place up, but what I couldn’t understand was that I had 4 other roommates, all with their own bedrooms, who all failed to keep the bathroom clean. Some of them had been living there for almost a year!

The day of the photoshoot came, and I made my way to the studio with a bunch of my friends as bodyguards. While I checked in, someone came to talk to me about scheduling and planning while another person powdered my face. I knew I shouldn’t have told them what to do or what not to do with my face in terms of makeup, but it got to a point where they didn’t understand my skin tone or my brows’ natural arches. I started subtly hinting to them that this was not right just for them to reply with, “It looks better on camera, trust me.” Having been in photoshoots and commercials before, I know what works on camera. I also know how much I have experimented on my own face with my lights and cameras. I kept quiet for the rest of the shoot and just did what they asked. It wasn’t till the end of the shoot, I really felt like I had to say something.

What happened at the end of the shoot will shock you. Stay tuned for Part Two.

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Yuki Thane

U Mass Amherst '23

Yuki is a junior at UMass Amherst majoring in Informatics and Communication. Playing instruments, singing, taking pictures, writing and sketching are some things she does when she's not 6ft under readings and assignments. Anyone can find her power-walking on campus at any time jamming to BTS.