Exactly why I came to Wisconsin

Last month I wrote a column for The Badger Herald expressing my displeasure with the existence of the private dorms known as Statesider and Towers at the University of Wisconsin. I explained that the “Coasties’” inabilities to assimilate and live with those unlike themselves created unnecessary tension and stereotypes on this campus. At that time, I found it obnoxious, but upon further review I merely feel bad for those that choose not to live with people in between Boston and San Diego, as opposed to finding their decisions annoying.

Last night my roommates plus three others got back from a weekend in Las Vegas, a 48-hour span I will never forget. But what I realized is that what makes my group of closest college friends to cool, is its geographic diversity, kids who live in the private dorms, join Sammy or SDT and go to City bar every Tuesday and Saturday will never experience. Of the 13 of us in Vegas last weekend, we come from Wisconsin, Illinois, Massachusetts, Washington D.C., California, Arizona, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Minnesota and Ghana; yes Ghana, the small country in northern Africa, not Ghana, Wisconsin – which doesn’t exist, by the way.

People have asked me why I came to Wisconsin from the Northeast. That’s why. If I wanted to meet kids from Newton, Sharon and Brookline, I would have gone to UMASS. Instead, I was in Vegas with a group from literally all over the world. In a year, I can be in any of those locations and know somebody. Those who choose not to assimilate can’t say the same thing; they’re simply choosing not to take advantage of the resources presented to them in a place far from home.

Too bad for them.