Comics Inspired by Observations From My First Semester of College 🧃

Using what I learned from a class I took on comedy

In recognition of this semester of college coming to a close, I’ve put together a much-needed photo dump of the most unforgettable things seen on campus this semester. To put them in context, I’ve also illustrated short comics inspired by each photo.

Full-sized gallons of orange juice

This photograph was originally taken at the very beginning of the semester, and since then, I’ve noticed that this cafe recently replaced these whole gallons with half gallons. I wonder if they found the whole gallons hard to sell (LOL). However, I still haven’t seen anyone purchase and/or hold a bottle of orange juice of either size on campus.

The entire class on a Zoom call while in the same room

As if we can’t see each other already, an extra camera was set up on the very top left to show everyone in the classroom all together in one big frame. Yeah, it’s kind of crazy. Jokes aside, this was one of my favorite classes from my Product Management class this semester. The speaker told us about his career in tech and provided us with lots of career advice that I resonated with.

Voting reminders on sticky notes on bathroom mirrors

Something that was not on my freshman year bingo card was a mirror selfie of me in a bathroom circulating through ginormous group chats of Duke parents. I originally shared these comics with my mom, but she showed a few more people she knew, and people just kept sharing until one day, a friend sent these comics back to me with, “This you?” He had gotten the comics from his dad.

Fried dumplings in WU aren’t pan-fried, they’re deep-fried

Guys, I really can’t admit this, but these *deep-fried* dumplings are good. They’re so good that I ordered them three more times after this. The soy sauce they give you in the box is extraordinarily salty, even for soy sauce, but it pairs really well with the dumplings. While the dumplings do look overcooked and ridiculously hard, they are just crispy and much softer on the inside. Is this acceptable, or am I turning too American?

Bike on a tree

I’m a big biker. I have two bikes with me on campus. The extra one is for my friends to join me on rides and as a backup when my primary bike fails me. The latter happens a lot, unfortunately. Most recently, I was biking between East and West campus and exactly midway through, the chains of my bike slipped off the gears. Thanks Dad for picking up my FaceTime and teaching me how to fix it with very professional tools (sticks I retrieved from the woods).