Things we’ll always miss about the Mirror Lake Jump

There’s nothing quite like rivalry week on campus. It’s a two-day week and Thanksgiving is so close you can taste the turkey and mashed potatoes.

November means that every “m” on campus signs and buildings is being crossed out with a red “x” through it. For the those who are new to OSU, this is for the rivalry with TTUN and the impending game that rocks college football every year for as long as we can remember.

But what is the student body going to do come November 22nd without the Mirror Lake Jump? We don’t have this body paint laying around for nothing.

This is everything we will miss about the Mirror Lake Jump.

The excitement upon waking up

Admit it, when you woke up today, you weren’t as excited as you were last year. There’s no giddy feeling inside of you about all of the bad choices you’ll be making as you sit through lecture. Now all you’re looking forward to is driving home for Thanksgiving instead of blacking out and running half naked through campus to jump into a lake.

Writing ‘Ann Arbor is a WHORE’ on your clothes

Other popular sayings that have been seen are your classics, such as “FUCK XICHIGAN,” “JT I’ll be your DD” and “12 Gage.” Long live the era of Cardale Jones. It’s just not the same going out to Too’s with this written across your stomach unless you’re soaking wet with God knows what that was growing in Mirror Lake. Half of the fun was sitting around and thinking of the best things to write on yourself and your clothes before taking the plunge.

Finding all your scattered friends at the lake

This part of Mirror Lake Jump was always inevitable. You do your best and try to keep your group together, but someone always ran ahead or couldn’t keep up. Then out of nowhere they’d pop up right beside you as you were about to jump in. It’s like the hate week Gods intended for it to happen that way.

Having body paint all over for the rest of break

The bottle said “washable” but your body wash and shower pressure say otherwise. There’s nothing quite like walking into grandma’s for Thanksgiving dinner with “Fuck Xichigan” still visible on your forehead. Don’t even bother wearing anything white because it’ll just show the left over paint that will not wash off no matter how hard you scrub.

Running back home before your hair freezes

You’re drunk, cold and trying to stay drunk but get warm and fast. But to make it better, you had to run around cops and other drunk people so you wouldn’t get hypothermia before Thanksgiving. Even if you couldn’t feel your fingers for a few hours and your hair smelled gross for a week, it was worth it.

Being carried home because you lost your shoes

God bless the friend who wasn’t as drunk as you were and could handle this job. At least since you were being carried you could video the run back through campus of everyone you saw running to Mirror Lake. When they drained Mirror Lake a lot of stuff was at the bottom, but it was mainly shoes. I guess some of us weren’t thinking to duct tape those things to our feet and now we’ll never get the chance.

Although this tradition has been canceled for reasons we as students understand, we can’t help but reflect on how amazing it was being a part of this. Even when the university put up fences, we were not stopped. May our memories of Mirror Lake Jump be cloudy and wet, just like we were every year on that night.