fandomhigh | Fandom High Welcome Picnic, Front Lawn of the School, All Day: Part II

Entry tags:

!event: welcome picnic

Fandom High Welcome Picnic, Front Lawn of the School, All Day: Part II

There were tables and chairs set up all around the lawn. Some were in the sun, where folks could soak up that precious vitamin D, and some were in the shade where folks could stay cool.

All of the tables had at least a little glitter on them though. It was a welcoming gesture to get glitter someplace you didn't know glitter could go!

[OCD is up! This is the picnic post for general mingling. Roommates, fake siblings and teachers are all here. Since it's outside, the picnic is open to all students, teachers, and townies!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"That's how we say it where I'm from, too," Kathy said. "But that's just because my old neighborhood is filled with people who've all immigrated from Korea sometime within the last fifty years. They cling to their old cultural practices pretty hard, you know?" She tiled her head. "Where's home for you?"

The name sounded closer to Japanese than, say, Chinese or Korean, but that meant absolutely nothing around here.

"Tokyo," Ringo answered, "and I think I know what you mean about old cultural practices." She grinned. "There are people like that everywhere, right?"

"People just get comfortable with what they know, I guess."

Considering her dad was a racist because her grandfather had died fighting the Japanese during World War II, Kathy was okay with people maybe clinging not so tightly to a few of them.

"Especially when they're surrounded by so much of what they don't," Kathy admitted with a laugh. "Sometimes, hearing my parents talk, they sound like they moved into a warzone, rather than immigrating in the 80's with no problems. But try telling that to a cranky old ajumma mid-kids these days diatribe, you know?"

Ringo chuckled. "Yeah, that sounds like it could get old..." Though, as someone who had never spent much time around adults, she couldn't help but add: "though maybe kind of nice sometimes? Familiar?" She wasn't sure, but TV always made it seem that way.

"It's like slipping on an old sweater," Kathy said with a fond smile. "Every time I visit home, it's like falling into the rhythm of a routine I've practiced a hundred times. You know what's expected and assumed and that does make things easy to get along."

Whether that was always a good thing was a matter of debate, but Kathy knew exactly what Ringo meant.

"So what brings you over from Tokyo?" she asked. "Or is it a matter of you suddenly ending up here without intending to? There are usually a couple of people every semester who show up that way."

"I heard about that," Ringo said, shaking her head. "I think I'd be totally freaking out if it happened to me. But, no, I wanted to come here."

She chewed on her bottom lip, trying to find the right words. "I think I just needed... a change of scenery? Nothing against my friends and family back home, I love them, but... well, it was a rough year last year, and I think the memories were just too fresh, so..." She shrugged. "Here I am. Trying something new."

Kathy nodded, giving Ringo a warm smile. "I get that," she said. "Sometimes you just need to go somewhere where no one knows you and has no expectations for you to try to meet while you recover your equilibrium."

Or just the need to get away from the oppressive expectations of others and to find out who you really were. Kathy knew that one from personal experience.

"And, hey, if you ever wanna talk about stuff, I'm in room 518. I mean, I know, I'm a stranger, but sometimes that's easier than trying to talk to someone who knows you better."

As much the second one as the first, really.

Ringo's expression softened, then brightened, at Kathy's offer. "That's really sweet of you," she said. "And... I might just take you up on that..."

She grinned. "Besides, I'm apparently in room 506, so it's probably not that far away!"

"Just down the hall," Kathy agreed, nodding. "Same side of the hall and everything. Feel free to stop by anytime. My roommate's leaving sometime this summer and I'll need someone to remind me to put the textbooks down and talk to real people sometime that week."

"Remind you...? Oh!" Ringo grinned in understanding. "Study a lot, do you?"

~~Sorry! I missed this ping!~~

"Yeah," Kathy said with a small nod and a rueful smile. "I'm trying to get into a really good college, so I've got to have a GPA high enough to be competitive for not only acceptance, but also financial aid."

And, you know, she was good at studying and it made her feel productive, but she was trying not to sound too nerdy the first day.

"University, huh?" Well, that wasn't actually something Ringo had ever given any thought to. She was only a freshman, so that seemed pretty far into the future for her.

"What are you going to study?"

[ooc: Not a problem. It was kinda a busy weekend...]

"Umm, medicine, probably," Kathy said. "I kinda grew up assuming I'd be a doctor."

Her parents had been telling her she'd be a doctor her whole life. Now that she was on the island, Kathy had come to the slow (and embarrassingly obvious) conclusion that she didn't have to be one. Now she just had to figure out if she wanted to.

"But that's what your freshman year of college is for, right? Figuring out just what you want to do with the rest of it?"

"Really?" Ringo frowned slightly. "I thought you had to have a pretty good idea of what you wanted to study. How else would you know which classes to take?"

Different countries, different expectations.

"The first year is mostly gen eds," Kathy explained. "I mean, I'd like to start my freshman year with a bunch of those out of the way already, but there will still be some I can take while I figure things out." She shrugged. "I mean, it'll probably end up being medicine, but it almost seems wasteful to not look into other things while I'm still in school, you know?"

"That makes sense."

"If you don't want to do something, you shouldn't have to, so being sure that you do want to is a really good idea."

Though.

"But maybe it also is good not to worry about too far into the future? I mean, I guess you're closer to having to know than I am, but the future will take care of itself. Or something?" She was pretty sure that there was some cliche.

"And med school is a lot of time and money if I'm not 100% sure I want to go through with it," Kathy agreed. "Though if it turns out I don't want to become a doctor, I'm going to need all the time I can get trying to convince my parents not to disown me."

The Li family had very specific expectations for their daughters, oh yes.

Ringo started to smile at the joke, then frowned as something in Kathy's tone registered. "They wouldn't really disown you, would they?"

"It would probably depend on what I decided to do instead," Kathy said, entirely too seriously for it to be a joke, yes. Then she noticed Ringo's frown and immediately smiled, trying to play it off. "No, of course not. Not really. They're just really excited about their little girl being in such a respected profession. That's all."

Nice try, Kathy, but Ringo didn't look entirely convinced.

"Are they very strict, then?" And, relatedly, "And is it so important that you be a doctor?"

"Well, they just want what's best for me, you know?" Kathy asked, sounding a little defensive. Which probably answered several of Ringo's questions right there. "They wanted to instill a decent work ethic in me and my sister so we'd be successful, you know?"

"Well, that makes sense," Ringo had to admit. "Just as long you get to have some fun, too. And get to do what you want to with your life."

She frowned slightly. "Doing what other people want you to at the expense of your own dreams can be pretty tough."

"Sounds like you know about that from experience," Kathy said, deflecting the conversation back to Ringo. "Does that fit in with why you're here?" She flushed a little. "If I'm getting too personal, you can absolutely tell me to back off."

"Well," Ringo's smile was still there, but it was definitely a bit more strained, old memories clouding her eyes a bit. "I suppose it is, really. A chance to get away from old expectations and responsibilities and just, well, see who I am underneath it all?"

There were parts of who Ringo had been that she wasn't really happy about.

"This is a really good place to do that," Kathy said. "Trust me. Speaking from experience here."

Kathy had done a lot of that since she'd arrived as a sophomore. And she was really starting to like who she was becoming.

"You have the freedom to find out who you are when no one's looking and because of how weird the island is, it's also a good place to figure out who you are when the chips are down, too."

Re: Mingling and Such [Summer 2015]

Re: Mingling and Such [Summer 2015]

Re: Mingling and Such [Summer 2015]

Re: Mingling and Such [Summer 2015]

Re: Mingling and Such [Summer 2015]

Re: Mingling and Such [Summer 2015]

Re: Mingling and Such [Summer 2015]

Re: Mingling and Such [Summer 2015]

Re: Mingling and Such [Summer 2015]

Re: Mingling and Such [Summer 2015]

Re: Mingling and Such [Summer 2015]

Re: Mingling and Such [Summer 2015]

Re: Mingling and Such [Summer 2015]

Re: Mingling and Such [Summer 2015]

Re: Mingling and Such [Summer 2015]

Re: Mingling and Such [Summer 2015]

Re: Mingling and Such [Summer 2015]

Re: Mingling and Such [Summer 2015]

Re: Mingling and Such [Summer 2015]

Re: Mingling and Such [Summer 2015]

Re: Mingling and Such [Summer 2015]

Re: Mingling and Such [Summer 2015]

Re: Mingling and Such [Summer 2015]

Re: Mingling and Such [Summer 2015]

Re: Mingling and Such [Summer 2015]