Had a ball! Kudos, M-ASS (Simone)
I would like to start this blog by acknowledging that, since I wrote my last post, I have been proved wrong on several accounts.
To start with: I applaud Melbourne Arts students for their fabulous costumes at the Arts Bookworm Ball. They were crazy, out-there, and overall, just plainly awesome. From a table full of Madeleine’s (…boys in dresses!), to Where’s Wally’s (so many that it became more like, quote my friend, ‘where is not Wally’!), Cat-in-the-Hats, Tintin’s, Winnie-the-Pooh onsies, Zoro’s, Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, loads of gals and guys in The Great Gatsby-themed attire, many superman/wonderwoman’s, Jesus, Zeus, Wolverine, The Joker… you name it, it was there!
And you know what? ‘Sexiness’ went out the door. Those online, revealing costumes I wrote about last time may be available, but at this party at least, they were non-existent. And I loved it.
In fact, it made me feel a bit stupid to be in a princess dress when I could have been dressed up fabulously and crazily as anything at I all that I may have fancied. I mean, don’t get me wrong, dressing up as a princess is actually so much more fun that you might think it is! It’s like you’re 5 again, twirling around in your fairy dress, not a care in the world… But, in comparison to the creative costumes we saw, I think myself and the other first-year girls realised pretty quickly that at this sort of an event, literally Anything Goes. We didn’t need to wear little heels – converse or thongs would have sufficed!! But this was maybe just another learning curve in the uni-adventures of a UniMelb/M-ASS newbie. Watch out, is all I can say! Next year we’re going to be seriously wild!
Secondly: I also wrote that if I was a guy, I would have dressed up as Mr Darcy. There were indeed many handsome Darcys’ floating around the Etihad Stadium Victory room, and while I’m sure many of them were intelligent, lovely gentleman, the one that I spoke to had me completely re-thinking this whole “Mr Darcy” obsession I’ve had over the past couple of years. See, he was pretty much exactly how Darcy is meant to be: arrogant. Without any effort at all I can see him saying ‘She is tolerable; but not handsome enough to tempt ME!’, just as Darcy does in the book. Arrogance, my friends, is not attractive at all. I don’t know how I was fooled into thinking Darcy was the epitome of the perfect gentleman. I guess the whole saving-sister-with-money thing is pretty noble of him at the end of the book, and young Colin Firth as Darcy in a wet shirt is not a sight that a girl can easily turn down, but really? I don’t think us 21st century young women can excuse any sort of arrogance as being ‘Darcy-like’, and then expect the guy to eventually become this heroic dude whom we’re ashamed to have been prejudiced against all along. Nuh-uh.
On a better note, though, the rest of the people I spoke to were super-lovely!! We met loads of people, and everyone seemed to be happy to be best-friends for the five minutes we were together (the effects of alcohol, anyone?! Dutch courage goes a long way, it seems!), and the M-ASS society were so helpful in guiding us to the after party and making sure we had a good night. A great bunch of people at UniMelb. We’re so lucky.
The best part of the night? Hmmm. The free photo-booth definitely has to get a mention, as does the awesome DJ, the flowing champagne, and the lovely second year girls whose table we crashed on. The after party wasn’t quite as good as the actual event, I thought. The line was huge – my friend and I were surrounded by a few guys who had had one too many (quote of the night was one of the guys we met in the line, who pulled me aside and whispered, words slurring: “That girl over there… she’s so perfect… I’ve had a crush on her for three years. I wanna marry her one day, ya know? But don’t tell her! Please don’t tell her!!! She doesn’t know! But. See. It’s gonna happen one day. It is. I swear.” – aww! Maybe being sober enough to stand up without the support of the wall would be a good start to winning this girl over, mate! But it was kind of cute all the same. I felt honoured to be the one to hold this secret for him.)
Anyway, I could keep writing and reminiscing here. There is so much to write! But, like, a thousand pages of reading calls, as does that essay I have to start, as does my bed which, after being at the Australian ballet last night (another story for another time! But in short: it was breathtaking), looks super comfy right now and I’m so tempted to crawl back into it… Sunday afternoon self-restraint, people…