There’s nothing more exciting than beginning college. If you’re a freshman at Virginia Commonwealth University, there’s a few things that you know all too well to be true.
1. Being harassed by upperclassmen for a swipe. When you see students hanging out by the Shafer steps or by the Panda Express line, you know what’s coming next – “Excuse me, do you have a spare swipe for me and my friend?” Um, sure, but do I have a sign on my forehead that reads “I’m a freshman; ask me for swipes”?
2. Casually acting like you’re not looking at a Google map on your phone while trying to find a VCU building. WHY is the Academic Learning Commons labeled “MCALC” on my schedule and how was I supposed to know that Hibbs and “HHALL” were two different buildings? Googling and following a map is so much better than being that freshman that asks for directions.
3. Regretting living on campus after every fire drill. Getting your first choice housing option was great and all your friends are jealous that you get to stay in Brandt. However, when your friends remember that Brandt and Rhoads are conjoined, and every time one has a fire drill so does the other, you’re no longer the center of their envy.
4. Playing it cool when someone asks you for directions to a place you’ve never even heard of. I’m sorry, innocent pedestrian, but you asked the worst person possible for directions. But sure, taking Cary St. should get you there…right?
5. Never being 100% sure if you registered for the right classes. The only open advising appointments are at 8 a.m. and the longer you wait the class might fill up. It’s better to go ahead and register for the classes you think you need, or at least that’s what you tell yourself to make yourself feel better.
6. Getting a package a week late because of the dorm mail room center. Amazon Prime may get your package to you within two days AND the tracker will tell you it’s arrived, but the mail room will insistently tell you they don’t have it yet. A week later, you’ll get that colored package slip in your mailbox (probably way after you needed that package).
7. Your roommate being your best friend is a complete and utter lie. Living with someone sounded really fun until you actually lived with someone. It’s not like the movies; living with someone takes a lot of patience and compromise.
8. You’re pretty sure you need to go to the doctor and check for asthma or possible cancer thanks to walking behind all the vapers and smokers. If you walk anywhere near the Brandt/Rhoads patio, you understand this. The smokers and vapers are literally IMPOSSIBLE to avoid.
9. You question your major every day. After every late night spent doing homework and studying for really hard tests, you think about changing your major to something that seems a little easier. I’m still a freshman; it’s not too late to switch, right?
10. Cabell is WAY cooler than your high school library. You can actually TALK on the first and second floors, enjoy some Starbucks and have decent Wi-Fi connection. If you get a nice spot, you can even people watch out the new glass windows.
11. Not having to buy any more VCU t-shirts because you get one for free at every event. We all have the t-shirt we bought after our first tour and the one we bought after orientation. Since coming to VCU, you haven’t had to buy anymore t-shirts because you’ve gotten one at every basketball game, APB event and really anything VCU sponsored.
12. Calling home more often than you admit to your friends. When you tell your friends “I’ll be there in 10” you really mean “I miss my parents and I just need 10 minutes to tell them that.” As a freshman, you’re trying to act like you have it all figured out when in reality you’re just counting down that days until you can go home again.
13. Not wanting to say you’re a freshman. Saying “freshman” is almost like a curse word, and it’s most definitely a curse. It’s the one thing you can say to make the senior frat boy at the party uninterested and make everyone refer to you as “the baby.” It’s better to avoid telling anyone you’re a freshman completely.
14. Going to Cary St. Gym to fight your freshman 15. Between Zumba, spin classes, a rock wall and a swimming pool, Cary St. knows that you need to keep off the freshman 15. Having Cane’s, Pizza Hut and Chipotle within walking distance of the freshman dorms is not helping the cause.
15. Loving Shafer at first, but now… At first, you ate at Shafer for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Unlimited bacon in the mornings? All you can eat gooey cookies? It all sounded fantastic until about a month later, when you realized that Shafer only has the same five meals over and over.
16. Taking everything an upperclassman says as gold. You’re never 100 percent sure on anything, so you take advice from an upperclassman so seriously. Another VCU student won’t sugar coat anything for you and they know better than anyone what you’re going through.
17. Praying every time you check your bank account. I understand, you HAD to order Insomnia cookies to get you through your late night study session and you HAVE to have coffee in the mornings if you’re going to get through that 8 a.m. Does your bank account understand though?
18. Wearing your orientation book bag and your ID on a keychain around your neck for the first weeks of school. Spotting all the freshmen the first few weeks is easy – find who’s wearing the yellow orientation bag, a VCU lanyard and ID around their neck and a super lost look on their face. Having your ID around your neck is just really convenient, okay?!
19. Muting the VCU Class of 2019 Facebook page. Over the summer, you’d troll the page looking to see if anyone had asked the questions you were too scared to post and look for potential BFF’s and roommates. Once school started and the Facebook group started to die, you were left with the notifications from the same five people who still posted DAILY. You had no other choice than to mute the page.
20. Going to MCV for the first time and feeling like you’re on a new planet. You always rely on your friends who got stuck on the MCV campus to just come to Monroe Park and hang out with you. The first (and last) time they convinced you to visit them on MCV, you felt like you were on Mars and completely isolated from humanity. So not worth the twenty-minute campus connector trip.