“Pseudo-intellectual homesick malcontents.”

As NYU students, we have been called worse by Lower East Siders, angry upperclassmen, and sometimes even (obviously jealous) family members. Going to NYU is a blessing and a curse when it comes to the public’s perception of us, and no one has doled out the insults like elitist Upper East Sider Blair Waldorf of Gossip Girl during her brief one-year stint living off of Washington Square Park.

Gossip Girl has called us “a place where the men wear sandals,” and “a patchouli scented purgatory”; Blair even said that she didn’t want to go to NYU to “read Beloved six times and experiment with lesbianism.” We admit that Blair’s witticisms hold more than a grain of truth [Ed note: The editor is currently working on a paper about Beloved]. But that was way harsh, Blair.

We, too, have been a tad cruel to the Upper East Siders. Here, NYU Local looks back on our GG relationship. It’s one that’s had more ups and downs than Jenny Humphrey has had haircuts.

Our love affair started with the first season in 2007 (hi, Kristen Bell! Welcome back!). We flocked to a show about New York teens who drink a lot, and were not disappointed with Serena’s dropped bomb in the finale.

GG and Local flirted on and off until the shocking reveal for season 3: Dan, Blair, Georgina, AND Vanessa were all going to NYU in the fall! Rich people going to NYU! It seemed so accurate, so real!

When the UESiders got to Rubin Ehrlich Residence Hall on 5^th Ave, it was so exciting. Shots of WSP and Hayden were like they were really there! But once inside, it was clear the GG staff didn’t research our little university. Blair threw a free sushi party that no one went to, Serena wandered around the buildings without security jumping on her, and there was even a roof party! We can’t even handle the second floor of Bobst without gates!

Then Dan, Vanessa, and Hillary Duff pretending to be an actress pretending to be a student decided to do “The 15 Things Every College Student Must Do Before Graduating.” They went to Mamouns (realistic), and then came home and had a threesome. So. Fake. NO ONE from NYU IN THEIR RIGHT MIND would have a threesome after going to Mamouns. Your breath reeks, and you would obviously have to brush your teeth first. Unprofessional, Gossip Girl.

Unfortunately, like every Chuck - Blair romance rekindling gone astray, our intimate relations with GG had to come to an end. Blair and Nate had to live in Murray Hill to make the Columbia-NYU commute work, and let’s be real: Louboutins do not take hills well. Dan and Vanessa, with their New Yorker and weird documentary dreams, fit in, but Blair couldn’t handle not being at an Ivy. We said goodbye, but still looked on from afar while ignoring Columbia’s GG welcome parties.

We finally greet GG as old friends as they say goodbye. Serena’s still a raging idiot, Chuck and Blair are still the only interesting part of the show, and Dan is doing something marginal about writing while Nate continues to have meaningless sex with a girl, one who is only remotely intriguing because she’s creepily still in high school. We mourn the loss of Jenny and her many changing hairdos and raccoon-like eye makeup, as well as filmmaker/social activist Vanessa, who was probably as close to an NYU student as GG was going to get. With the finale, we can only say that it was fun while it lasted. We still get excited when Blair fits an NYU dig into a conversation. We just know that it means she still cares.

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