Online Only: Meal-point mania

So freshmen, I hear that 75 percent of your meal points are now rolling over to next year. Don't think I'm not thrilled for you, because I am. But allow me to tell you a tale from a time when this was not the system.\nAs a freshman, I was forced to spend about 700 superfluous points as part of a clever little scam known as "Meal Plan C." It may be the lowest plan available for freshmen, but it certainly anticipates the purchase of far more food than any college-age girl, bulimics excluded, can possibly shovel down over the course of a year.\nLast year I took my mom to the C-store to help spend some of these points. After assuring her that I had enough points racked up to afford enough food to feed every child in the Save the Children campaign and to nurse even Mary-Kate Olsen back to health, she ended up buying food for herself, my grandparents, her co-workers, the C-store clerk and her husband and our neighbor's dog. "It was like supermarket sweep!" she exclaimed. "I've never felt so free in my whole life!"\nBut toward the end of spring semester, using meal points felt less like freedom and more like bondage for me and the other girls on my floor, as we became completely obsessed in the quest to empty our accounts, compulsively calculating our remaining points after each purchase.\nResidential Programs and Services' "In Touch" e-mails only fueled our panic by reminding us how far behind we really were.\n"We're only supposed to have 72 meal points left? I have 572!"\nIt even managed to turn us all against each other in vicious competition.\n"I'm treating us all to dinner!"\n"No, I am! You paid for all our lunches yesterday!"\nOr:\n"Today I spent 40 meal points just on candy!"\n"Oh yeah? I spent 50 on aspirin and deodorant! I needed to show backup ID!"\nMy plan was to focus on a few key items that I knew I would never stop needing. As I was loading the C-store's entire supply of shaving cream into my basket one day, it occurred to me that I would never have to purchase shaving cream again in my entire life. Not to mention I now have more than enough sanitary napkins to last me until menopause.\nThis plan did manage to backfire in the end. With a week left of school, I became a bit too confident in my meal-point balance, overshot at the C-store and suddenly dropped from 300 points to 26 to last me through finals week. I sat in my dorm room hungry and discouraged amid the heap of my lifetime supply of toiletries, kicking myself and wondering, "How could I have let this happen?" And more importantly: "Is shaving cream edible?"\nI was a victim of Meal Plan C. As all you freshmen this year enjoy the luxury of meal points that roll over, I only ask that you remember and respect all those who suffered and paved the way before you.