Beixi Li

I’m a few minutes late, and from the look of the scene in front of me, the house has already grudgingly offered up its overcapacity to the scraggly lawn and cracked sidewalks outside. Clusters  of hopeful faces stand in semicircles around a center, awkward ones who don’t know where to go hover at the fringes. I shrug my way through the crowd and make it to a plastic table balanced precariously on crooked metal legs.

 

Scanning the list of nametags, I finally find mine, Beixi Li, Alumni and Communications Chair, and pin the cheap plastic to my shirt. It hangs a little crookedly. There was supposed to be pizza, and I push my way up the peeling porch, into the overcrowded kitchen that’s 20 degrees hotter than outside, only to face a wall of empty pizza boxes and half drunken 2 liters of pop. Before I can engage in more self-pity, a rush sidles up with 2 pieces of pizza seeping grease into his paper plate, and sticks out his hand for a handshake.

 

I’m still thinking about the pizza, but I realize he’s looking at me expectantly as his mouth mimes sentences, clamping shut on his last word, eyes bugging slightly all the while. Why does he remind me so much of a suffocating fish?

I try to look kind, post on a cheesy smile, and ask for his name again

“I’m Alex, uh, and I’m a Junior, yeah…” He nods his head affirmatively, but without confidence, and tries to master the art of eating and talking at the same time.

I feel my voice squeak up an octave, and notice that I sound vaguely like someone on helium, “Great! What are you interested in concentrating in?”

Alex’s face bears an interesting blend of lethargy and nervousness,“Uhhhh Finance. Yeah I’m thinking about I-banking.”

The little demon on my shoulder rolls her eyes and perfects an exaggerated tantrum. Thank goodness I didn’t say that back when I rushed. I’ve only heard Finance trumpeted around every year, and what do you think they usually say when I ask why? Yeah, money. Next, he’ll probably say something about being an entrepreneur.

 “I’d like to start my own business someday.”

Close enough.

 

Five minutes later he’s gone. And I can breathe a little bit. Turning around to take my breath of fresh air, I find someone’s already breathing in that pocket of bliss. With an outstretched hand and overeager eyes. Did I look like this two years ago?

She’s already in the middle of her monologue.

““I’m a Sophomore trying to apply to the business school.”

Someone else materializes out of thin air.

“I want to major in I-Banking.”

And now they’re trying to outcompete each other.

“I was captain of DECA in high school.”

Last minute, they remember they’re supposed to be interested in me.

“What do you like most about Akpsi?”

“What’s your favorite part of the pledge process?”

“What are you majoring in?”