Background: Anna Lim is a 21-year-old student living in Los Angeles, CA. She is a student at USC. She is currently studying electrical engineering.

Original script: “I had an initiation for my dance team in my sophomore year of college. It was probably one of the funniest and most ridiculous things I’ve had to do during my time here at USC. They basically gave us a huge laundry list of things to do around campus – tasks to complete, basically. It included dabbing in McCarthy quad, ordering a drink at Starbucks with a fake name, finding a DPS officer’s scooter and taking a picture on top of it, etc. So they told us we had to finish all the tasks by a certain time and meet at one of the dance team member’s apartments. When we got there, we were told to get into a single file line and close our eyes. They led us into the apartment room – which was pitch black by the way – and when I opened my eyes, I could see the team members holding candles and chanting something underneath their breaths. They gave us a piece of paper that held an oath to the team on it and we had to memorize three paragraphs of this oath in 10 minutes. It was incredible nerve wracking and so much pressure because the team members were literally in the room with us looking hella intimidating with their candles and deadpan faces. Then when we completed that task, we had to kneel before the captain and swear our allegiance to our captain’s dog, Maggie. It was honestly such an otherworldly experience, but absolutely hilarious at the same time.”

Background Information about the Piece by the informant: My informant was on Break Through Hip Hop at USC and this was her sophomore year of college

Thoughts about the piece: This initiation sounds hilarious and like a lot of fun. I like how they didn’t force you to drink or do things you didn’t want to; rather, the whole thing sounds pretty silly and just a great way to bond with your fellow new initiates. .