14 / SEX ON THE HILL / THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2010 / THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN / KANSAN.COM
Illustration by Kylie Millward/KANSAN
Waking up at someone else's house after a hook-up can lead to an embarrassing walk home.
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Taking the walk of shame
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How to survive the journey home after a night of shacking
You wake up in a daze and the alcohol from last night is still lingering through your body. The sun breaking through the window is blinding. You roll over and allow your eyes to adjust. Then you remember where you are — and it's not your bed. The guy or girl next to you is definitely passed out and your situation immediately clicks. Yep, like a majority of the partying college population, you've shacked.
CULTURE
Suddenly, the fun night you thought you were having blurs into the present and you realize that more than anything, all you want to do is dart — especially if you can't remember the name of your snoozing bedmate. You proceed to quietly squirm out of the bed and scramble for your belongings.
You look everywhere, even across the room and under the inhabitant's dirty clothes to locate everything. There's no way you're going to leave your stuff. At last, you spot your wallet under the bed and tip-toe out. In dorm rooms or fraternity sleeping dorms, the exit must be navigated swiftly and carefully to avoid crossing paths with another human while your escape plan is in full motion.
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And finally, the official exit is right there in front of you at the touch of the hand. Whether you're busting out of Corbin or winded from climbing stairs in McCollum, the exit is so relieving.
Now, the tricky part is upon you — time for the infamous "Walk of Shame." You either whip out your phone and proceed to dial half of your phone book hoping one of your friends answer or you decide to commit to the trek. Sometimes, if you're lucky, your location of shacking is conveniently close to home.
you learn a fun night out, Grace Dooley, a sophomore from Lawrence, walked out of her shacking location at a fraternity and was surprised.
so, you may have dodged some serious humiliation, which would have been grand. But for some reason at least one person always seems to notice and spot you in all of your glory — and you curse the day.
surprised.
"When I walked outside a bunch of the pledges were out there cleaning and they all started clapping." Dooley said. "I used my long hair to cover my face while I was walking across the basketball court to my ride so I could hide my identity."
glory — and you just pretend not to see them and just keep walking — not stopping for anything until you reach the sanctity of your home and warm bed (which sounds heavenly at this specific juncture). Whether safely riding in a generous friend's car or walking across campus wondering who the idiots were who decided to build the University on the Rockies of the Midwest, the walk of shame is a struggle. Some obstacles are hard to avoid, and if you're really having a bad day, you could find yourself in a tangle of a situation that results in your worst nightmare.
Many students have been victims of the uncomfortable and ultimately embarrassing shacking moments that are unforgettable. Luckily, people are smart these days. Available for purchase is a Walk of Shame Kit that is for sale for $34.99 on walkofshamekit.com that includes all the essentials a girl that next morning. These are necessities for surviving and beating the ordinary shacking experience.
This advanced kit includes: a cotton dress, flip flops, a backpack with drawstrings to fit your belongings in, pre-pasted toothbrush, hypo-alergenic wipes, a call/dont call leave
behind note card and a breast cancer awareness bracelet. A portion of the proceeds are donated to a breast cancer foundation. So, at least you won't have to feel completely guilty for splurging for this hefty kit.
for spurring for them. For guys, the walk of shame isn't as mortifying as it is for girls. Because guys are usually wearing a shirt and jeans or maybe a button-up, they don't look as odd walking down the street in the morning from shacking. Some guys even refer to the walk of shame as "the stride of pride" and probably proceed to run home to tell their roommates every detail, reveling in their accomplishments from the night before.
With shacking, careful precautions need to be made so something bad won't happen to you Kathy Rose-Mockry from the Emily Taylor Women's Resource Center on campus says alcohol blurs people's judgments and they might end up in a situation that they never wanted to be in the next day.
wanted to be in the next day.
"People need to be aware of the effect of alcohol and decision making." Rose-Mockry said. "It can often result in sexual assault. They're going forward and people aren't realizing what's happening and that's tragic."
Whether its repeated again or left as that embarrassing moment in college, shacking and the walk of shame are phenomenons that consistently reoccurs on college campuses across the nation. It needs to be dealt with carefully so you don't end up with a situation that you don't want. If you're lucky enough to catch the glimpse of a shacker walking home, don't be too quick to judge because at one point that could have been — or probably — was you.
Edited by Tim Dwyer
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