Crowder

I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t disappointed by my first interaction with my roommates. This was the moment that I had been waiting for all summer, and it already looked like nothing was going like I expected. Lionel and Timmy were supposed to be the first friends I made in college, but that quickly began to feel impossible.

The three of us sat in silence for a little while after I unpacked my things, and then I knew it was time for me to get to work. I pulled out my itinerary of freshman welcome week events to try to figure out what exactly my new roommates liked to do for fun.

“So do you guys want to go to the freshman ice cream social tonight?” I asked.

Timmy immediately looked up, and seemed very relieved.

“Sure!” he responded quickly.

Lionel pondered my invitation for a while longer, trying to seem cool (something I would soon come to learn that he did often).

“Yeah. I guess I could come along and check it out,” Lionel shrugged.

We went to the ice cream social and just about every other activity together that week. While I was thankful for Timmy and Lionel’s company, it definitely felt forced. I had almost given up when I heard about a house party happening the night before classes began. This is what I thought could truly let us bond, and in a weird way, it did.

After talking both of my roommates into coming to this party with me -Timmy didn’t take much convincing, but Lionel was trying to play it cool as usual- I put on my nicest flannel and headed out the door.

When we arrived at the party, Lionel immediately went to join the jocks. I was somewhat disappointed that he had already left us, but I wanted to have a good time anyway. Before I knew it, some munchkins that I recognized from high school quiz bowl competitions were pulling me in to their trivia game. I felt bad for leaving Timmy alone, but figured he would probably have more fun without me.

It was almost a relief to be hanging out with the self-proclaimed nerds. Academic knowledge was one thing that I was never unsure about, and it was definitely easier than making new friends. I began to come to terms with the fact that maybe Lionel and Timmy weren’t going to be my close friends during that first year of college. That was okay, though, because I would be friends with the other pre-med students.

So I decided to have fun with my new friends and bring our trivia team to victory. My heart raced when one of the upperclassmen wizards, Otis, picked me to be on his team.

“I’ve heard about you,” he said. “A scarecrow with the biggest brain around, huh? Well, let’s see about that.”

Any bit of confidence I had built up immediately disappeared. I knew that this was more than a trivia game. It was a chance for me to prove myself worthy of the honor of being the first scarecrow to ever finish the medical program at the University of Oz. I took a deep breath and prepared myself for the game.

If you’ve ever watched game shows with buzzers, you can begin to imagine what this game looked like. Just take a Jeopardy episode and place it in the middle of a crazy house party, and you’ve pretty much got it.

I started out strong, buzzing in faster than everyone else on most questions.

“Winkie Country!”

“Purple, blue, red, yellow, and green!” I shouted, answer after answer.

We made it to the last round of the game, where we wagered our points for the win.

“Let’s go all in!” I said excitedly.

“Are you sure about that?” Otis asked cautiously, but I could tell that he was impressed with my performance.

I nodded and got ready to buzz in and win the game for my team.

“What year was the University of Oz founded?” the moderator asked.

Before I knew it, my hand was hitting my buzzer even though my mind was completely blank. How could I not remember? My time ran out, and I lost the game for my team. All of my success earlier didn’t matter one bit to them because they wanted to win.

“I knew that you had straw for brains!” Otis yelled as he walked away.

I was humiliated. This was supposed to be my chance to be known for my smarts, and I had just blown it. I could feel tears forming in my eyes, so without even thinking, I went to find Lionel and Timmy.

You’ve already heard their stories of what happened that night, and now you know mine. One horrible night brought me closer to who would become my two best friends, and for that, I am eternally grateful.

A final thought from me: It took me years after this horrible party to realize that academic success is not the only measure of my worth. Don’t make the same mistakes I did. Focus on growing through learning. Enjoy time with your friends. Go out for late night pizza. Try new things. You might even wind up becoming lifelong friends with a Lion and a Tin Man.

Author’s note:

This story is based on L. Frank Baum’s character of the Scarecrow, originally from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Baum wrote many books featuring Scarecrow, and the character’s brain was the focus of many storylines. I thought that focusing on Crowder’s academic success would make perfect sense when connecting his backstory to the original character. In the original books, Scarecrow received an actual new brain. A neurological operation seemed a little too dark for my story, so I made Crowder an aspiring doctor. In my opinion, pre-med studies push people’s brains to the limit, so I wanted to show how Crowder really wanted to train and condition his brain throughout college. Crowder’s story also deals with negative stereotypes that were featured in many of Baum’s original characters. Scarecrows don’t have brains. Tin Men can love. Lions shouldn’t be afraid. These are all ideas that are present both in Baum’s version and mine.

Since Crowder is so preoccupied with academic pressures, I thought that it only made sense to pull in some growth mindset ideas that I have learned through this course, and incorporate them into his final thought at the end of the story. He is encouraging readers to not get caught up in all of the same stresses that he did throughout college, which I think makes him a bit more modern and relatable to college students than the original Scarecrow.

Finally, I incorporated a few details from the original Oz books into the trivia games, just for fun. Winkie Country is part of the Land of Oz. Purple, blue, red, yellow, and green are the colors of the Land of Oz flag. It has been so fun to get to do research on Oz and add in details where I can.

Check out this map and flag of Oz below!

Bibliography:

Chapter XVI The Magic Art of the Great Humbug in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum. Web source.

Land of Oz Wikipedia Page. Web source.

Scarecrow (Oz) Wikipedia Page. Web source.

Image information:

Scarecrow Wizard of Oz Illustration by Marta Fleeter. Web source: Creative Commons.

Map of Oz. Web source: Wikipedia.

Flag of Oz. Web source: Wikipedia.