Senior Brice Hafemeyer attempted to mentally prepare himself to move halfway across the globe to Saudi Arabia. He was apprehensive. It was his sophomore year when his parents broke the news. His outlook on the rest of his high school career was splintered, though he never ended up departing. Since then, he developed the nickname ‘Saudi’ as an homage to his almost-future, two years past.

Most people know Brice Hafemeyer by his nickname, ‘Saudi’, though countless of classmates ask him weekly where the nickname originated from, considering it surely is not in his genetics, as he dons all-American blond hair and blue eyes. After a back and forth possibility of moving to Saudi Arabia for his father’s job, the nickname ‘Saudi’ stuck around up until now, more than two years later.

Initial reaction

“A few years ago, I think I was going into sophomore year-ish, around then, I was told by my parents there was a good chance I was moving to Saudi [Arabia], or actually Bahrain to be more specific, but my dad was working in Saudi. Originally you know I was kinda sad about it and I started telling my friends about it,” Hafemeyer said.

Hafemeyer felt frustrated at both the news of the move and his soon-to-follow nickname, ‘Saudi’, dubbed because of his future home.

“I was angry so I didn’t pay attention to it. I was kinda sad at first, ‘cause you know, I was leaving everything behind, I thought, and they kept on calling me Saudi and I’d actually get kinda sad, and, you know, of course, I didn’t tell anyone then because they would’ve stopped and also I didn’t want to be a buzzkill,” Hafemeyer said.

After two years of the possibility of moving across the world dragging behind him, Hafemeyer’s trip was called off, similar to his experience in seventh grade, where he nearly moved to Detroit.

“We didn’t end up going because it was too late. It was a two year program for me at the school I’d be going to, so they actually let me stay here for my senior year, but the nickname Saudi stuck because for years, you know, whenever I meet new people, everyone would be like, ‘Yeah, he’s moving to Saudi,’” Hafemeyer said.

A new title

One of Hafemeyer’s friends, in poking fun, created a video on Ditty, a service which creates songs out of any text. The song sang, “Brice have fun in Saudi,” six times over.

“I remember sitting at the lunchroom table and a kid actually made a video, but it’s pretty funny,” Hafemeyer said. “At the time it wasn’t funny, it was actually kinda sad, but now I can look at it and I think it’s hilarious, and I was only really sad about it for like a month, and after that I learned to accept it, but it was kinda weird not going, but I’m very okay with not going because it would have sucked.”

Hafemeyer, though grateful not to have left Stillwater, would not mind visiting Saudi Arabia again, despite his less than enjoyable trip there two years ago.

“I visited it once for two weeks and it was a nice place and it definitely had good food, but I didn’t really see myself living there,” Hafemeyer said. “It would be fun to visit now that I know I’m not living there.”

Hafemeyer was in the running for Homecoming King earlier this year, but received Prince instead. He really did not want to be in the running at all, but was thrown into the mix anyhow.

“I remember talking to my guy, Hunter Hippel, and I was like, ‘Hunter, I really hope you win, buddy, because I really don’t want to’ and from what I recall he felt the same way,” Hafemeyer said. “I actually had a fun time on the entrance and I didn’t care about being king at all, because it’s just a title, but I still thought it was actually pretty fun and now I guess I have a crown that’s plastic, so that’s cool.”

The end of an era

Hafemeyer, now a senior, has chosen to go to a four year college after graduation, and is considering both in state and out, though Saudi Arabia is a hard ‘no’, as is his nickname.

“I got accepted to a few colleges so I’m deciding on some of those. I might move far away or I might stay close. It just kind of depends,” Hafemeyer said. “I got into Washington State, NDSU, and St. John’s. Those are my top three but I’m still waiting on a few schools. I don’t know, I feel like it’d be kind of weird if I show up at college and they call me Brice and I’m like ‘Call me Saudi’. I’d be living in the past.”

Senior Ryan Shepard, Hafemeyer’s best friend since second grade, claims that although he is glad he never moved away, doubts Hafemeyer’s legitimacy.

“It would be one of my good friends gone that I hang out with a fair amount. He almost left in seventh grade too. He almost moved to Detroit for his dad’s job. So it was kind of sad then and now we’re all just skeptics whether it was true in the first place. Nobody knows if he just pretended. You never know,” Shepard said.