Week One: “The Virgin Nerds”

352 seniors—one in five in the class of 2006—signed in last Sunday at Senior Bar, armed with nothing but a government-issued ID and a neon yellow punch card. A mere 65 made it through the first five events. Eventually there will be only a handful left.

It’s Last Senior Standing, the garishly alcoholic offspring of Senior Bar and Singled Out. The definitely not-Harvard-affiliated Senior Bar Committee has organized the tourney (see www.seniorbar06.com). And from Sunday to Thursday, the participants brave financial and emotional costs ($8 for wine at Grafton?! What!?) to socialize with classmates at local bars.

The past week has proven a bar-packed success. One female ’06er—waiting in a long line for her third Long Island Iced Tea at Tommy Doyle’s on Thursday—moaned, “It’s like all the virgin nerds just came out of their caves.”

The real adherents to the mission can do it 30 days in a row. In the coming five weeks, FM will follow the booze-soaked journey of drinker extraordinaire Meghan M. Dolan ’06 (I should note here that I make no pretensions to any form of objectivity in this reporting. Meghan’s my girl.)

So far, the former FM associate has made short work of Last Senior Standing. “Everything else has been training,” Meghan deadpanned.

Week one allowed her to perfect her m.o.—rolling early to Senior Bar, getting her card punched, then drinking and socializing as the mood strikes.

By Sunday night, though, she seemed a little weary. “I thought about just coming in and getting my card punched,” she said. “But then I had a beer.”

Burn-out might be Meghan’s biggest obstacle, but for Ryan Travia, director of the Office of Alcohol and Other Drug Services, alcohol is the elephant in the room.

“The not-so-subtle implication about who can drink the most and remain standing after 30 consecutive days of bar-hopping is inherently problematic,” he wrote in an email.

Perhaps, but week one of Last Senior Standing has shown that seniors simply like each other’s company (even more so with alcohol). The atmosphere of the event has been less “COLLEGE!” than cozy, with irredeemable “virgin nerds” emerging from their caves, drinking, socializing awkwardly, and drinking more.

If you go to senior bar in the next five weeks, say hi to the kids you haven’t seen since freshman year. And if you find Meghan there, she’ll definitely have a drink with you.