Second semester senior Frank Ericlin’s Saturday started off as most do—a slight hangover due to a poor water-to-beer ratio the night before, fried food from Douglass breakfast (which, according to his physician, may be the cause of his irritable bowel syndrome) and a challenging decision between working out and studying, which ultimately led to six episodes of “New Girl” on Netflix.
Making any decision in life has been a frequent challenge for Ericlin. For instance, in determining his major, Ericlin completed clusters in chemistry, Russian, psychology, dance, biology, computer science, Swedish, economics, political science, and public speaking.
This chronic indecision have led to many sleepless nights for his parents. Most recently, they have been worried about Ericlin’s impending decision about whether or not to pursue a gap year as a semi-professional Mashoonga-er (a game played with two styrofoam swords), which has seemed more and more likely as graduation quickly approaches.
Knowing his mother’s disdain for his uncertainty, and recognizing that it was April 1, Ericlin seized the opportunity, making his most definite decision since determining that John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” is actually a poor description for the highway he drove on through West Virginia en route to sprang break.
At approximately 2 pm, Ericlin called his mother and father, and said, “Mom, Dad, I’ve decided to enter a Ph.D. program next fall in microbiology.”
His parents rejoiced, feeling as if a weight had been lifted from their backs. For the remainder of the day and night, Mr. and Mrs. Ericlin felt confident they had raised a self-sufficient young man who will be ready to take on the world after graduation, a feeling which was quickly replaced with renewed anxiety upon waking up to Ericlin’s drunken voicemail, left at 12:01 am that night, telling them,”You got got! April Fools!”
