Name, School: Brigid Babbish, CC

Claim to fame: I apparently have a “horrific” Michigan accent, but even after years outside of Michigan I still can neither hear nor shake it. I also used to be the sole wind player, but now must settle with sole bassoonist, in the Columbia-Juilliard exchange. I even get to play the contrabassoon when I’m unlucky.

Where are you going? I’m going to Philly to learn how to become the virtuoso bassoonist I have always aspired to be.

Three Things you learned at Columbia:

1. It is important to celebrate birthdays, regardless of the amount of work you may have to do.

2. If you put a box labeled “Valentines” outside of your room, it will magically fill with candy.

3. A lot of anguish can be avoided with a good night’s sleep.

“Back in my day…” Lounge TVs were 13″ boxes with fuzzy signals and not 50″ plasma HD supermachines. And Harmony Hall didn’t exist.

Justify your existence: I have been on NPR. I have also been known to operate locomotives and make maple syrup, but only when necessary.

Is the War on Fun over? Who won? Any war stories?: No. Here’s my story: I am the proud creator of the first giant snowball of winter 2010, but of course it couldn’t have reached its full maturity without the army of people who were strong enough to push it around when it grew to be taller than my accomplice and me. Public safety was afraid that we were going to throw it at someone, even though a large group of people could barely push it. You can see them ruin the joy and happiness at about the 7:00 mark in this video. Their machines could not destroy the snowball, and so they opted to push it (with much trouble) in front of Lerner and cover it in snow. Now that’s a great way to solve a dangerous problem! Other than that, most of my fun went under the radar. I may have formed an army of very brave freshmen to ambush study breaks with nerf guns and steal study break food. I may also be tied to the theft of an industrial sized honey bear named Victor…and other unmentionables beyond the occasional Ferris Booth burrito.

Would you rather give up oral sex or cheese? I have always disliked cheese, which made choosing off of a restaurant menu very easy. It also makes a choice like this easy.

Advice for the Class of 2015:

Bring your older brother’s N64 and Smash Bros to school with you, but don’t let people blame you for their lowered gpa’s…

Try to find a way to go camping with your college friends during a long weekend, it’s bizarre and very revealing to find yourself in nature with people you only associate with NYC (post COÖP).

Do not be that one person in the hall who consistently makes the bathroom nasty…people (me and the rest of the people you live with) will find out who you are (how can you consistently be so gross?!) and think about it whenever they see you.

Take advantage of leaving campus during freshman year before the magnitude of your responsibilities hits you and the very real sophomore slump sets in. Don’t worry! I promise things get better!

Do not let school get in the way of your own goals.

Alone-time is important.

And lastly, New York City is most beautiful from the seat of a bicycle.

Any regrets? Not playing in the fountain on 115th and Morningside enough and not becoming friends with a lot of people from my writing classes. I swear we know waaay too much about each other to not at least say hello in passing.