Olivia Telecky-
On September 18th, 2024, First-Year Natalie Borst was eating dinner with her friend JC when he accidentally sparked a new interest in her. According to Borst, when discussing food in the Caf “He was like, ‘Who would eat a plain lemon?’, and I said, ‘You’ve never eaten a plain lemon?’”. This simple question made Borst wonder about the normality of her eating habits, “I assumed everyone had at least tried it. . . so, I’m pretty sure it was that night I was at the pit in Co-Ed and I just started asking.” Because it was her first year at Gustavus, Borst was trying to meet new people, so she decided to kill two birds with one stone; she could fulfill her curiosity while becoming acquainted with her peers.
“It’s a really good icebreaker,” Borst shared, “It leads to a conversation.” Unlike other icebreakers, which can easily become repetitive after a week such as orientation, the lemon question isn’t too intrusive. “It’s personal, but it’s not too personal,” Borst remarked. She found it important that others didn’t feel pressured to talk to her if they didn’t want to. To do this, Borst asked if they were okay with answering a question before she asked, and made sure to respect their answer. She also thought it was important to ask a yes or no question because, “if people don’t want to talk they can simply say ‘yes [or] no’, then walk away.” Borst is also sure to not bother others with her inquisitiveness. “I sense the situation. . . obviously never [someone who’s] doing homework, or, like, on their phone.”
People generally react neutrally to this question as well. “It’s surprising, actually. Some people, like, will just answer and like, walk away, like no reaction. . . I would say a lot of people answer and then ask why.” Borst remarked. First-year Elyana Jones, who was one of the first people asked, said that the question made her more curious than anything else. “I was a no, and then I was like ‘why. . . how many people are you asking?’” In regards to the second question, the original response was 100. Jones, now interested as well, began to ask her friends on Borst’s behalf, which became a common reaction. Because of this, Borst has reached a little over 200 answers as of today and considers this to be an ongoing investigation. Borst and Jones have also remained friends to this day.
The spread of people asking the lemon question has gained Borst some notoriety on campus. One time, someone spotted her and remarked “Hey! It’s the lemon girl!” Another time, Borst was hanging out with a friend when she asked her the lemon question, and she responded, “Oh you’re the person who asked me that?!” Borst finds her reputation as the lemon girl rather amusing, despite concerns from her parents that she might come off as annoying. One day, she got a text from her father saying “Natalie, can you do me a favor and stop asking people about lemons?. . . Those kinds of things can be funny for a while, but then grow tiresome. Maybe that’s not the case with this but maybe it is. Just some friendly dad advice,” to which Borst responded that she was making many friends from doing this in several different grades, and that “At least I’m not doing drugs.”
The ‘lemon girl’ reputation has been a positive one for Borst, as when people do recognize her, they do so excitedly and ask about her current numbers. Since starting her experiment, “three people [have] come up to me being like, this should be your new question.” Borst is a naturally outgoing and extroverted person, but this experiment has shown her why those qualities are so important. While she no longer asks people as often as she used to, because she has become more familiar with people on campus, she still is planning on asking those in her new classes next semester as a way of getting to know them.
For those wondering, Borst currently has 129 yes’s and 95 no’s, meaning that 58% of polled Gusties have, in fact, eaten a lemon. She also wanted readers to know that they could add to this experiment. “If you want to reach out to me, feel free to, my email is natalieborst@gustavus.edu”.