People with last names, at the end of the alphabet, are tired of always being LAST!!!!

My daughter made me realize something that has slowly started to bother me and I shouldn't let it affect me, BUT IT DOES.

My daughter will be going away to college and when I went to her "accepted students" day, I was kind of disappointed. that the same rule applied at UCDavis, as those rules in every school.  If you are blessed with a name that is at the end of the alphabet, you're an "afterthought" and always DEAD LAST!!!  Everything at the end of the line, runs-out!

At the Davis "meet and greet", people with last names from A through F(?), got to go into the new, clean dorm tour at the CENTER of the campus, G through M (?) went into the next closest area, and N through S went a little further out. But those of us with last names T through Z got screwed.  We had to walk way the heck off campus, after we had been on a long walking tour of the campus. The other dorm tours were packed!  Our dorm tour was lucky to get 5 people. Why has it, and will it continue to be that our last names always puts us at the tail end of everything?  Now you could say that having only 5 people on the tour was advantageous to seeing the rooms.  Nope, we had to climb up and down several flights of stairs, on an extremely warm day,  no elevators.  (Not good when you have been carting all of your paper junk, jackets, bags and everything else since 7:30 am because there is no parking.)  I suspect this is true at most campuses.

HISTORICAL EXPERIENCES

Whenever there was any kind of activity, when my kids were at school, camp, swim, anything, they were always placed in the LAST group such that things always ran-out or would be sent later,  or the group would have to be formed with 8 people instead of 5, etc.

Time Magazine (Time Article) reported on a study of last names and the shopping habits of those people whose last names were at the END of the alphabet.  The study found that people with names at the end of the alphabet, do not procrastinate when there are purchases to be made.  The suggestion was that we "last alphabetters" don't really want to miss out because we were and have been accustomed to always being last, and, we take advantage of things in a timely manner.  This is probably very true.  It doesn't really suggest that we don't read things well, or make carefully thought-out purchases, it only suggests that we jump at good opportunities because everything always comes last to us.  Sounds reasonable to me.

BUTTTTTT, I have always tried to make it up to my kids by trying to say positive things like:  "Good things come to those who wait."   "People who are last, always get the best".  I had to say something like that because the only people who would understand our last name issues were those teachers who were named:  Miss. Wright, Ms. Young, Mr. Washington, Ms. Zellner, etc.  They were sympathetic and mixed-up the order of the kids.  When I taught, I tried to do it according to birthdays:  Jan - April, May -August, Sept to Dec.  When that didn't work, I grouped backward or did it by color table.  I TRIED TO BE FAIR AND ROTATED WHENEVER I COULD.

So, now that our 2nd kid is going to her summer "orientation",  you can bet she will be organized in alphabetical order.  I take very little solace in knowing that all over the country, a number of families will be experiencing the same mindset.  (Yep our older child has already been through this)

Yep,  I hate to break it to my husband that he is in for a lot of walking and will have a really long day because he is at the very end of the alphabet!  Got nothin' but love for you for doing this task, sweetie!!!   Sucks and Bites big time!!!