Your freshman year of college is an interesting one. All the typical stereotype of freshman year things are true. No one sets your schedule, no one tells when to eat, when to go to bed, you’re on your own without parents to tell you right and wrong- even if you didn’t have that growing up it is still a change everyone experiences. You get to set your own schedule, your own standards and morals for yourself whether that includes dancing on tables in frat houses, chilling by yourself in your room, or staying pent up in the library studying, everything you do is for you and only you.
You meet a lot of different people along this new discovery of self. As a freshman you are in an interesting position, not only with yourself but in the social hierarchy of college life. Some people are going to give you crap and push you around, others are going to act like they don’t know you exist, but a special few are going to acknowledge you and help you.
There is a definite hierarchy in college social life. And it is an interesting time, a transition from being a student to being a teacher of sorts and finding your way to “adult life” occurs. The hierarchy kind of goes like this, there are the freshman who don’t know what’s going on, who thought they knew what was going on, but then get hit with the cold hard truth that they have NO CLUE what they are doing. Then you have the sophomores who know the school and know their friends, they haven’t yet hit the hard major classes so they are still enjoying life for the most part. They are secure and happy within themselves, so they don’t really care about freshman as much. Next, are juniors who are in the full swing of their major courses. They are busy trying to find internships, immersing themselves in their major and let’s face it- just turned 21 so they are hitting the bar hard while their wallets are still padded. Finally, we have seniors or last year students. They are busy tying up loose ends, finalizing resumes and enjoying their final days as they try to find the balance between passing classes, keeping their sanity, getting ready to move on to the next step of life and enjoying their time that they have left.
Despite, their business and craziness in their own lives there is something special about college seniors. They know, they get it, they have been there, done that- as cliché as it sounds it is the truth. They have made out with that gross frat boy, they have puked in the alley, passed out in a toga, failed that class, ranted about that professor and are still putting on that cap and gown despite their sleep deprived, caffeine dependent bodies. Even though they are busy with their own lives and don’t need to invest in your life, they do. Once in a while there is a glimmer from them to you, a sympathetic exhale, an all knowing look in their eyes, and occasionally a supportive hug.
There may have been times they laugh at you for puking up that sangria or laughed at your cough from your first shot of whiskey or chuckle when you fall down the stairs, but it’s only because they are reflecting and remising about past times. A feeling passes in the moment, even if you are ridiculously embarrassed it’s okay because someday you will be there too, laughing and remising about all the silly, stupid, ridiculous things you have done.
The seniors you will come to barely know will be some of the people who affect you the most because you will look at them in your lowest, darkest, most embarrassing moments and realize that they were there before and they have made it.
When your senior friends share that they have gotten a job or an internship or passed that class for graduation, you rejoice not only for them in their success because you are excited for them but also for yourself. You rejoice because they have “made it” and so will you.
So, seniors, thank you. Thank you for laughing, thank you for holding my hair back while I puked, thank you for advising me not to take that professor, and thank you for joining in my roast fest when I ended up taking that class with that annoying professor.
Thank you for the hugs, the glances, the laughs. I wish I had known you sooner and longer but I am glad to have known you.
Best of luck in the future, you’re going to kill it.
Sincerely,
a soon to be college sophomore.
Dedicated to Chow, K4, Kage, Elise, Kiwi, Tessa, Jess, Edill, Jillian, and so so many others.