On Sept. 24, the resident advisors of Ropp Hall hosted an all-hall bonfire at the fire pit past Adams Bridge. There was music, s’mores, fruit juice barrels and a large turnout. I attended the bonfire, not just as a journalist for The Witmarsum, but as a resident of Old Ropp.
Junior TESOL Major and Third Floor Ropp Addition Hall Director Caroline Schutz photo by Nathan Heinze
“All the RAs kind of wanted to do something as a whole hall, just to kind of get people knowing everyone in the building,” said junior TESOL major and Third Floor Ropp Addition RA Caroline Schutz. “We live on our floors and obviously we’re going to do our separate floor events, but for the start of the year we wanted to get people out of the building a little bit.”
Students gathered around the campfire, talking, playfully arguing over music choice and burning marshmallows. I overheard two of the RAs in charge of the event mention their surprise at the turnout, stating that if they had known such a number of people would come, they would have listed a specific end time. People started leaving around 10 p.m., so it wasn’t a huge issue.
A group of Ropp residents and alumni gather to play “Super Smash Bros. Ultimate” in The Pit. Photo by Nathan Heinze
As for me, I did what I normally do—played video games. I brought my Switch with me, but we were too far from any access points for me to get online, so I played “Super Mario Bros.” instead. One RA mentioned they always saw me playing video games around campus but had no idea I lived in Ropp. This is not too odd since I rarely leave my room.
Despite my general isolation, I still feel that Ropp Hall is a nice place to live. No one is ever really loud or disruptive (except for some construction happening right outside my window the first couple weeks), with most loud shenanigans happening in The Pit. It has a pool table, table tennis, lots of chairs and a couple of vending machines. The vending machines are about the only reason I go out there any more. Large crowds stress me out.
Sometimes people group up and play video games on the TV down there, like “Super Smash Bros.” and “Mario Party.” I remember when “Super Smash Bros. Ultimate” came out, a student set up his Switch on the midnight release and a bunch of people (including myself) played to try to unlock all the characters. Shame the Switch got stolen right before the Christmas Break. The student who owned it was asking everyone if they knew who had it. He seemed so upset…
Besides that incident, I never seem to be bothered by anyone in Ropp. I have lived on two different floors since my sophomore year, and neither one of them were particularly disruptive. I try to return the favor, by using headphones when I watch videos and keeping my late-night video game sessions at low volume. I found out that you can set all audio to go through the PlayStation 4 controller’s headphone jack, and that has made those sessions even more enjoyable.
On the occasions I do leave my room, I have a few friends I can do things with. On Sept. 15, I asked a friend to tag along with me while I played “Pokémon GO.” It was a special event that day, where more of the Pokémon Turtwig were spawning. We walked around campus, spinning PokéStops (real-world locations that give items and quests to players that visit them; Ropp Hall itself happens to be one, lucky me), and then headed into town.
On the way back we stopped at a gas station. I bought some soda and got my friend a bag of popcorn, then I played “Super Smash Bros.” in his dorm until dinner. It was nice. I like having people around even if I’m just playing a video game. Two weeks later, we watched Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse with a third friend and went to a trivia event in Marbeck.
Because of these experiences with Ropp Hall, despite my distaste for crowds, I really enjoyed the bonfire.
Even just sitting by a fire near other people made playing “Mario” less lonely. Part of me hoped someone else brought their Switch and then we could have played together, but it’s not a big deal. It was nice just to hear everyone having fun.
Schutz mentioned the possibility of another all-hall event. I hope they go ahead and do it. Maybe I’ll get to take another box of fruit barrels back to my dorm.
Nathan Heinze is a junior convergent media major and convergent journalist for The Witmarsum
