Jan 30

Sigma Chi hosts a formal every year called Pledge Dance which from my understanding is sort of a "last hoorah" for the seniors and a welcoming to the pledges. The pledges pick the theme every year and decorate the house according to that theme. They seniors are the only ones that dress up to the theme and everyone else just wears normal formal attire. Although the theme changes with each year, there is one thing that stays the same every time: the goldfish pond. Let me expand on this a little more.. Every year for Pledge Dance, 600 goldfish are purchased and put into a little pond. During the dance, the guys and their dates go up to the pond, reach in, catch one of the little fishies....and then eat it. Yes. Eat it. I know this is so inhumane and how this tradition started is beyond me but a tradition is a tradition. My friend Carter invited me to go to Pledge Dance with him this year and of course I accepted. I excitedly called my mom to tell her that I had been asked and then proceeded to drop the goldfish bomb. It didn't go over too well. I'm not exaggerating when I say that for the next four days leading up to the formal, there was not one day when I didn't get a text or a call from her begging me not to participate in the fish feast. Naturally every time this happened I talked it up more and more just to grind her gears (this is so fun to do), but honestly I was a little skeptical about it myself. Saturday night I went to the dance and a couple hours in Carter looked at me and said, "ready to eat a live fish!?"... I'm pretty sure thats the first and only time I'll ever be asked that question in my life so of COURSE I said yes. We each grabbed a cup of coke, walked up to the tank and spent about 3 minutes plunging our hands into the water trying to catch our slimy snack. Let me just note that I caught mine first. Fishing with my bare hands really might be my calling...  But thats besides the point. After you catch your goldie of choice, you lock it up in your fist and shake it so that it passes out. Wow writing this out really makes the reality of how awful this is really settle in... So after the fish has passed out, you count to three, toss 'er back, and take a swig of your coke. I honestly could not believe that I did it. What I didn't mention was that somewhere between the shaking of the fish and the counting to three I came thiiiiiiis close to backing out. But I said to heck with it, you only live once so eat the dang fish. Next thing I knew it was in my belly. And then another one was in my belly. And then another one.... and then one more. Yes, I ate four. The following day I did get a little queazy every time I thought about the murdered fish sitting in my belly. But I also couldn't help but laugh at the same time. Not because it was necessarily funny, but just out of awe that I was actually bold enough to eat four live goldfish. But thats what college is all about. In the short time that I've been at Purdue I've learned just about as much about myself as I have about the subjects I've studied. This stage of life is about being bold. Its about stepping out of your comfort zone and challenging yourself to do something that you normally wouldn't do. I've found that if you don't take chances, you regret, you don't learn, and ultimately you cannot grow. I want to spend the rest of my time here at school having as much confidence in myself as I possibly can and being bold.