Desmond's Personal Tour of Tufts
For me, and I know i'm not alone in thinking this, finding spaces to be comfortable in coming into my first semester was a source of stress. Only three months into my college life, I have been lucky enough to find these spaces.
Every prospective Tufts student will be taken to Tisch Roof during their tour, and for good reason. It is a staple of our campus, offering an optimal view of downtown Boston and ample space to study or hangout with friends, or even practice dance routines, in my case. Similarly, every prospective student will be shown the cannon, a staple of our culture and reflective of our student atmosphere. A Tufts tour will take you to a lot of places, places that you may come to love while you attend Tufts, but it can’t show you everything. Some things, or places, you’ll just have to find on your own, as I have done in only a few weeks.
I have been lucky to find one such place that I am surprised more Tufts students don’t frequent, as it is neither tucked away nor hard to find. Straddling Miller and Paige Hall is a balcony with seats and tables dubbed the Lanai (although I’m not sure if Tufts students call it anything else, I am a freshman after all). Walking to and from my Middle Eastern History class every Tuesday and Thursday I would see the Lanai/balcony and one day I decided to see what the view was like from up there. I did not expect trying to find its entrance to be akin to solving a maze, but after weaving through Miner Hall I reached my destination. What I found was a place where I could study, read, be productive or just chill, and I can do so with a great view. While the Tisch Roof offers a breathtaking view of downtown Boston, from the Lanai you can see both Boston (although from a different vantage) as well as students bustling across the academic quad. There may be no better place for students (read: me) to take photos of the New England foliage with a cup of apple cider from Hodgdon and a book in the other. Wait - that would require having three hands, nevermind. Unless you do have three hands.
On October 1st, I met a politically inclined, vegan, dog-loving writer. All four of these descriptors could be considered commonplace among Tufts students, but the person I met was not a Jumbo - it was Waka Flocka Flame.
How did I get this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to secure a selfie with the artist behind the most important song of 2010 (not up for debate), “Hard in the Paint”? Had I won some sort of raffle? Or perhaps I snuck in backstage, sleuthing my way through security like the protagonist of a video game. Unfortunately, I neither have the skill nor courage for the latter feat. What I did was much simpler: I joined TUSC Concert Board.
Concert Board is responsible for planning the two largest on-campus concerts of the year: Fall Fest (which sold out in less than an hour this year), and the even bigger Spring Fling. The chairs of Concert Board are in charge of contacting and booking artists to headline our shows, in addition to a myriad of other duties, like being in charge of volunteers, such as myself. As a volunteer, I had pre-show access to the venue that gave me the chance to see how stages are set up, tour the artist’s dressing rooms, and watch the soundcheck in a nearly empty venue, which is a surreal experience. And of course, there was after the show, when Concert Board met the artists. While starstruck, we collected handshakes, photographs, and even a used show towel from both Flocka and supporting act Michael Christmas, and of course, thanked them for the energetic performances. We then converted the venue from a stage back into a gymnasium.
Joining Concert Board, for me, meant more than just having behind-the-scenes show access, and more than just being able to meet great artists. It also gave me the opportunity to cement friendships with members of the group, from all class years, ,bonding with the friends I joined with and people I didn’t know before. Playing “would-you-rather” when the lights went off, in the venue at midnight due to some electrical mishap that is past my understanding, or dancing to Young Thug songs off my phone while putting away the concert equipment in the early morning, in the context of being responsible for a multi-thousand dollar show, was a unique and memorable experience.