How the Cat became my second home

Oberlin recently welcomed some of its alumni for the annual homecoming weekend filled with lots of games, reunions, Yeobie merch, and a lot of stories shared between alumni and current students. As I was working one of the alumni reunions at the Cat in the Cream, a student-run coffeehouse on campus, I met a few alumni who used to work there too--some in 1985, some in 2015. No matter their graduating class, they all remembered the Cat very fondly and were super excited when we invited them to take a polaroid picture for our wall of 'Past Cats' that the current staff started three years ago. That moment served as my grand reminder too: I am soon joining that wall of 'Past Cats,' graduating from Oberlin with a whopping experience at the Cat of eight semesters! In thinking of how bittersweet that farewell is going to be, I decided to walk you through the favorite memories that made the Cat my second home.

Coming into Oberlin in first year, I knew I wanted to find a job that would help me pay off my college tuition. After attending only one show at the Cat in the Cream, I applied for their coffeehouse manager position. Even throughout my interview for the position, I didn't realize what it meant that the Cat was a student-run performance venue and coffeehouse. It was only after I joined the staff that I realized we did everything: from booking artists and figuring out concert sound, to buying ingredients and making cookies, from coming up with our own events and hosting them, to weekly Cat staff meetings where all this magic happened.

The Cat is known for many of its jazz events, and my first two shifts happened to be exactly that: two jazz recitals for graduating seniors. Imagine my joy when I realized I'd get to hear live jazz while working! While still a new employee, I also got to decorate all of Hales for our annual Hales Late Nighter, a big event where we transform our whole building into a particular theme, offering music, drinks, bouncy houses, circus performances, and so much more. For my first Hales themed the Roaring 20s, the bouncy house we had ordered was an obstacle course. To warm up for the audience that was about to show up, the Cat staff competed right there and then. 

That memory from Hales was the first night where I thought of the Cat as a second home: 12 student employees spending 10-20 hours together weekly, organizing events, competing on bouncy houses, and listening to live jazz. Since then, my love for the Cat has only grown.
 

I've knitted, colored, sung Valerie by Amy Winehouse at every karaoke, danced during samba and bossa nova live music nights, cheered for jazz, heard book readings, hosted movie nights, almost won trivia multiple times (I'll get there eventually!), and enjoyed my time with the staff. None of these events, including the Amy Winehouse karaoke and the samba dances, would have been the same without the staff dancing and singing by my side, figuring out the next artist to book or hosting our annual Friendsgiving dinner. 

The Cat is special because of all its events and because of the love that we, the staff, put into it. Our dancing and singing is what makes the Cat what it is, measured by the alumni's fond memories of the space too. 

It doesn't matter if you are an incoming student or have been on Oberlin's campus for a while, but I hereby invite you to come experience the coziness of the place, the warmth of our teas, and the smell of our famous (enormous) chocolate chip cookies that cost only a dollar! I hope you see the same magic at the Cat that I live as a staffer, the magic that has made it be my second home, guiding my way all through graduation next semester.

Plus, I hear rumors that the Cat will start selling Vietnamese Iced Coffee soon...