Everyone knows the scene towards the end of the sublime Mean Girls, when the fat girl gets up on stage, her eyes filled with bittersweet tears, and reads from a crumpled piece of paper: “I wish I could bake a cake filled with rainbows and smiles and everyone would eat and be happy.”
Reading our feature on the secret lives of Organ Scholars this week, it’s hard not to be reminded of this speech. The article ends with the suggestion that “next time you’re at Evensong, check out the guy/girl in the loft. There might be more to them than you think.” It might not seem like a call-to-arms of a closing sentence, but the message is clear. It’s time to break down the walls which have been erected between the various tribes which form themselves in Oxford, look past the occasionally ghastly exterior and appreciate whatever we might find within.
Freshers’ events and the few weeks after are the only times most of us mix with genuinely different people. After that the cliques are formed, and thesps are rarely to be seen out drinking with Rugby U21s, while the Library Massive are unlikely to be tempted out to Park End.
Like the Mean Girls’ cameo, we think that’s a shame. As this week’s feature shows us, even Organists, the most lofty of social groups (pun fully intended) are just students like everyone else. So Union-haters, e-mail yourself in for President’s drinks and spend a night with the hacks. OCA members, stop and ask the student selling Socialist Workers how the revolution’s going. The lovecake is big, and there are enough slices for all.
