#scretious by Yuliya K. '18
and bunnies!
DONE.
Freshman year ended. The brain has been freed from psets and required readings, and I am enjoying a breezy carefree summer.
I have sadly been a slacker blogger, stuck deep in procrastination universe.
Time to catch up. To start off, I’m completing some blog post requests from friends, in the order they asked.
Scretious
Scretious is… I guess the best way to describe it is as the new cultural phenomenon. It is a word beloved in some MIT circles, and abhorred in others. The East Campus Twitter page (@EasTcamPUSRush) utilizes it often, and it has even made its way onto a recent graduate’s cap, here.
So what does “scretious” mean? The local explanation is this (from Tumblr):
You may be wondering how to use this new vocab, and the answer is quite simple. This is #scretious:
(MIT students and alums decorating a local noveau statue entitled Transparent Horizons with toilet paper during East Campus Day)
This adorable bunny is pretty scretious:
This slightly confused bunny is very scretious also:
This is what #scretious looks like on Instagram and Twitter.
Really, anything can be scretious, good or bad. The word is so versatile that it can replace most English exclamations, expressions of feelings, and terms. And for an extra creative touch, you can also go with the casual scresh, p scresh (for “pretty scretious”), v scresh (for “very scretious”), or secretious (for a very negative scretious). Feel free to invent your own (and share in the comments below!).
(content explained and requested Taylor S. ‘18, who also approved the title of this post)
Yikes!
This is the negative counterpart of scretious, much like “secretious.” For awkward situations, “yikes” or “secretious” are indispensable. Other uses include “yikesey,” “pretty yikesey,” or a version of your own invention.
Incidentally, the first use of “yikes” in an MIT Admissions blog post dates back to 2005. Here it is used again in a rather informative 2006 blog post about IAP and Charm School (a wonderful establishment still in existence in 2015): “Kiss the Frog” by Bryan O. ‘07.
MIT Bunnies
Little known outside MIT is its substantial population of bunnies. This was brought to my attention by Banti G. ‘17, who has tried to find out more about MIT bunnies online but to no avail. This is shocking, as it is practically impossible to cross MIT campus (especially at night) without encountering at least a couple of these majestic creatures frolicking in the grass. Like this:
Bunnies can be found on Killian Court at midnight, and in front of Stata Center during the day, and really everywhere around the buildings of the Infinite at any time. We have adult bunnies and baby bunnies, and all of them are happy and well fed, enjoying their MIT experience.
The lifestyles of bunnies and students are similar. We work during the day (while they seek sustenance in the bushes) and go out at night (while they gather in groups on our lawns). Sometimes, we can get so close to the animals that we can watch them play and interact and snuggle in the most adorable fashion.
Other times, we pursue the bunnies in a breathless chase to the bushes, never catching up to befriend them. Day or night, we coexist peacefully with our animal population, and marvel at their ways. Even in the most hosed times, seeing the bunnies makes everything better. They are the best part of late night snack runs.
It is no surprise then that each new blogger this year was introduced with a reference to rabbits (source here). Now at last the MIT bunnies can have a place online. Make sure to look for them on MIT campus.
(segment suggested and inspired by Banti G. ‘17)
Life
1. In a stunning turn of events, I declared Course 11 – Urban Studies and Planning as my major, with a plan to concentrate and write the thesis in Education, and will now graduate from the School of Architecture. For a minor, I may choose either CMS – Comparative Media Studies or Course 17 – Political Science. In a year, I went from being certainly a Theoretical Math major to possibly a Physics major to definitely an “Education” major. Lesson to self: never assume life plans before college. There’s always a giant world of knowledge yet unexplored.
2. For several weeks following finals, I explored and fell in love with Boston and all the ways an MIT Student ID can make me the most powerful tourist. For lovers of the arts, many local performance venues and museums offer student discounts (full list here). Venues also often have Student Rush tickets, which are half the lowest set ticket price for the performance, if purchased two hours prior. For book lovers, the Boston Public Library offers library cards for local students. Conclusion: being a student in Boston is awesome, and I must take advantage of it more next year. The Boston Public Library is the most gorgeous place for quiet study, with over 23 million items for reference.
3. I am currently back in Ohio, avoiding the neighborhood deer, remembering yoga, and enjoying the suburban hush. Hopefully, this will give me more time for blogging, where I can talk more about academic curiosities and urban adventures, as well as share stories of friendship. And, I’ll get to try out a “real person” lifestyle, in which I work for money and bring no assignments home.
For now, I will put off other topics for later blog posts, where I can properly gush about the wonders and blunders of freshman year. Fortunately, I have time to catch up on that, as by the MIT Law of Conservation of Frosh, I will remain a freshman until the 2019’s Convocation in the fall.
So, I will sign off with the world’s trickiest tongue-twister (scientifically proven here) and a good luck wish to all the prefrosh in the midst of housing and other MIT decisions!
pad kid poured curd pulled cod
GOOD LUCK, MIT CLASS OF 2019!
