Identity Mishaps

A requirement, as you all know, the college makes it mandatory (technically) for all students to attend seven convocations a semester. Well as of today I now have two under my belt, such an accomplishment I know. I have survived seven semesters of going to forty nine convocations, fifty one if I start counting this semester. Something I should add here is that I love hats and they are somewhat of a comfort object for me. Without my hat on in crowded places, such as Phelps Stokes during convocations, I get really anxious and unfocused. There is a “responsibility” at convocations that states * Respect for the presenters includes an appearance of attentiveness, including upright posture and forward gaze. Caps, hoods, headphones, earbuds, or any other obstructions to listening or to others’ vision should not be worn. The head over convocations sends an audience rights and responsibility paper out at the beginning of every year. It has been a struggle every semester being told that I need to take my hat off. Something I find interesting though is when I wear sock caps in the colder months they do not tell me to remove my hat. What distinguishes a ball cap for a sock cap, I’ve been asking myself for four years now. Today I got brave or stupid, depends on the perspective you take I guess. Instead of waiting to be told to take my cap off I stopped the head honcho himself and told him my dilemma involving crowds, hats, and anxiety. He looked at me with genuine compassion and said if I let you wear your hat though others might ask why they can’t wear theirs. I see the dilemma here but I wasn’t about to give up. After a minute of eye locked silence he spoke, “Just keep your hat on and if a convocation usher tells you to take it off tell them I approved it.”  Yes! Finally some understanding justice. I thanked him greatly expecting him to move on down the aisle. Nope he then preceded to say, “As a freshman this is something you can work through and maybe you won’t need to wear your hat later on down the road, you are a freshman right?” I kind of panicked at this question, what if he wouldn’t let me wear my hat if I said I was a senior because by then I should be use to the crowds and noise. So in my panicked state mumbled and shook my head yes. As if things could not get any more frightening for me, he asked what my name was. In my not so sound mind I said the first name I could think of that sounded legit, Taylor. Smooth right, how do you even get the name Taylor from Amanda? So now there is officially a freshman from Western Kentucky named Taylor who is thinking about majoring in Child and Family Studies wandering around campus somewhere. Oops! I have no justification for why I lied, it just kind of happened. I feel super guilty about it and tomorrow I plan to go to the man himself and turn myself in, my real self that is.