The Y2K of HC

Hey folks! Let me just start out by saying Happy Thanksgiving! I got home last night to a house full with family, and I’ve got to say, it’s good to be back. Now that I’ve had a night in my own bed and a shower without flip-flops, I find myself at an 8 on a scale of one to relaxed.

This break has given me a chance to reflect on my experiences through three months of school, and frankly, I love it. I’ve met more cool and interesting people than I ever might have expected; I’ve learned to push my academic capabilities to their limits with the help of some brilliant professors; I’ve found time to mix in work study, intramural sports, time with friends, and time at the gym.

As much as I’m enjoying life at HC, though, every now and then a moment will pop up that throws life into a frenzy. One such moment occurred a week ago, and it’s that experience that I’d like to share with you all in this post.

For the past three weeks, we freshmen have been perusing the course catalogue for ideas for spring semester. Some kids knew exactly what they’d be taking, others, like myself, were open to ideas. After a round of meetings with advisors, most had a general outline for what courses would be the top priorities on enrollment day.

Enrollment day for freshmen was on November 19th (a Thursday) at 7:00 a.m. We students had two jobs to complete by that time – to fill our online enrollment backpacks with the courses we wanted, and to have backups in mind in case things didn’t work out as planned. In retrospect, I don’t know which job was more important (ignoring either would have been a recipe for disaster).

On Wednesday night, a thick wave of seriousness washed over the freshmen population. As I made my nightly rounds from room to room I noticed a lot of people looking stressed, and a lot of people missing. I asked my friend Charlie what was going on, and our conversation went something like this:

Me: “What’s going on here? Where is everyone?”

Charlie: “Cory just left. She went with Brittany to a hotel for the night. Nathan went home, and everyone else is in bed.”

Me: “It’s a Wednesday night, I don’t get it.”

Charlie: “Dude, tomorrow is enrollment day, people take this very seriously.”

I knew that people were excited about picking classes, but they were actually leaving campus? Was I missing something? Would my laptop betray me when I clicked enroll? A lot of people seemed to think so.

A few days earlier, a campus-wide email was sent out suggesting that students not rely on the wireless network for enrollment. Had I been wise, I would have invested in whichever company supplies the Worcester area with ethernet cables. Maybe next year. Since I already had a cable, I figured I was all set. No sweat right? Depends who you ask.

Whenever someone would ask me what my “plan” was for enrolling, I would tell them I’d be using my laptop in my room. Here is a small sample of the variety of responses this apparently controversial decision evoked:

Response 1: “Wow, dude, that’s bold.”

Response 2: “Wait, you mean you’re using the same computer you always use?”

Response 3: “I’m with you man, I don’t know what everyone is freaking out about.”

Response 4: “Wait, enrollment is tomorrow?”

The only comparison I can think to make for this situation is to Y2K. In this metaphor I would be one of the people who thought all the concern was blown out of proportion, yet everywhere around me there were the people stocking up on enough bottled water and canned broccoli to survive until spring. Simply put, the tension on campus could have been snapped like a twig.

To my knowledge, the concern was this: People knew that at 7 o’clock, everyone would be picking classes. The large number of students logging into the network suggested that the network might not run as smoothly or as quickly as usual. People were afraid that if they used their own laptops or a computer that wasn’t securely wired to an internet connection, the entire system would explode and destroy the world. Or something like that.

Honestly, I can see some logic in those ideas. But I didn’t feel the urge to flee campus in search of a more secure connection. My mouse clicks just the same way every other mouse clicks, no? Whether I was at home, in a hotel, in my dorm room, or in the registrars office itself, the internet was still the internet.

I went to bed early on Wednesday so that I wouldn’t sleep through enrollment. (I wasn’t concerned like other people, but I wasn’t reckless either.) At 6 a.m. I heard my roommate slip out of bed and run out the door. At 6:50 I went to the bathroom, and saw absolutely no one. The hall was empty. The rooms were silent. Honestly, if a tumbleweed rolled by at that moment I wouldn’t have thought twice about it. I didn’t need to see anyone to know that they were all reviewing their courses for the umpteenth time or quadruple checking their internet connections.

When I got back to my room I logged out of Facebook and closed down all my programs except for the internet. At 6:59, I thought I’d pull a fast one on everyone and clicked enroll early. It rejected me. Since I wasn’t sure whether or not my computer clock was in synch with the campus clock, I hit refresh every five seconds until finally I got a message that said “processing”.

At that very moment, the tension snapped. My childhood memories of 4th of July were brought to the forefront of my mind, as reactions exploded around me like firecrackers.

From next door I caught this excerpt of a conversation:

“YES! I GOT ‘EM ALL! WHO’S YOUR DADDY?!”

“Shut up! I need a replacement class!”

From a few doors down I heard this:

“Are you KIDDING ME? I didn’t get any of them?!”

From the other direction:

…actually I probably shouldn’t share this reaction with the public, but that particular person wasn’t pleased.

When I glanced back at my own screen, I saw I had finished. I had gotten all of my classes. At 7:01 it was over. My laptop hadn’t exploded. No message popped up that said, ‘Hey sucka, should have used a more secure connection!’ I was happy.

I strolled down the hall to see how others had faired, and it turned out I was one of the lucky ones. One of my friends was searching for a final class to replace one that had filled, another was already back in bed but was only enrolled in two, and another was sitting in his underwear with his hands on his head staring at his computer like it had just told him he won the lottery but he missed the deadline to claim his prize.

Later, during my 11 o’clock class I heard more mixed reactions. Some people had it easy like me. Others missed out on a class or two but found a satisfactory substitute. Some kids didn’t get anything they wanted.

Overall, it was a crapshoot. It’s a difficult system to master – 700 students all clicking a button at once, hoping that their click was a millisecond quicker than the click of the person next to them. In the end it came down to luck. I had good luck, some others didn’t. End of story. I’m sure that over the course of four years we’ll all be on both sides of the ball, and that’s why it’s important to have backups. The people who faired the worst were the people who went in carefree like I did, but didn’t have a Plan B. So while you can’t control everything, you can at least be prepared for the worst.

In any case, the moment has passed and it’s time to move on. If you’ll excuse me I have a banana bread that isn’t going to bake itself! Enjoy your turkey, everybody!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 25th, 2009 at 6:26 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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