An open letter to GBO wristbands: This isn’t a music festival

An open letter to GBO wristbands: This isn’t a music festival

Hannah Cooper/Staff

When we at the Clog first arrived back in Berkeley, we were startled by the ubiquitous yellow festival-style wristbands on students’ wrists. After a quick look on our Instagram feeds, we realized that these wristbands were not, in fact, from the best — most photographed — weekend of people’s lives, Outside Lands. We were shocked to discover that these wristbands were for Golden Bear Orientation, or as the cool kids call it, GBO.

Back in our day, the freshmen were distinguished by their GBO lanyards, which carried name placards and meal tickets. Does GBO think it’s such an exclusive and coveted event that it needs wristbands that can’t be slid off and traded? That’s unfortunate, because we at the Clog were hoping to steal a lanyard and head into the stadium to bake in the sun for three hours for no reason!

Even the students participating in GBO had complaints about how easily the wristbands tightened and how uncomfortable they were; shoutout to all the people still wearing their Coachella wristbands — must be painful! Our advice to you UC Berkeley newbies is that your wrist hurting from a GBO wristband should be the least of your worries. Buckle in for one hell of a college experience.

We would, however, like to commend you freshmen for — despite all the odds against you — still managing to acquire lanyards. GBO did not even provide you with lanyards! You put the effort in to go out and purchase lanyards to ensure everyone on campus knows you are a freshman, and that’s admirable.

In conclusion, we urge GBO to do better and stick to what it knows: lanyards.

Contact Elena Cavender at ecavender@dailycal.org.

The Daily Californian

Read more here: https://www.dailycal.org/2019/09/06/an-open-letter-to-gbo-wristbands-this-isnt-a-music-festival/
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