I won’t miss…
1. Relying on the dining halls for all my meals.
Do I know how to cook? No. But am I looking forward to having my own kitchen? Absolutely. I’m ready to buy all the cereal – and that includes Cocoa Krispies, which Hewitt stopped serving at the end of first semester, RIP. That Quad meal plan is expensive and frankly inconvenient. Buh-bye.
2. Always being last for registration.
The “three-waitlist” rule was the bane of my existence, because I always knew I wasn’t going to get into most of the classes I wanted. We finally won’t be last in the pecking order, though, which means my internal freakouts about whether I’ll actually be able to graduate on time are officially (for the most part, anyway) over.
3. Having to answer questions about college from literally everyone.
I mean, I’m sure people will still ask, “How’s college going?” in the next three years, but we will finally be free of the dreaded, “How are you adjusting?” and “Do you miss all your high school friends?” There will definitely still be the occasional, “What classes are you taking?” but since, as I said above, we get more say in what classes we actually can take, I’m not too mad about it.
I will miss…
1. All my friends being in one building.
No matter where you were or what you were doing, first year pretty much guaranteed you wouldn’t have to walk home alone. It also meant if you needed to borrow something and posted in the Facebook group about it, it could likely be brought to your door within five minutes. Living in the Quad can feel a bit hectic at times, but I know that once the class of 2021 spreads out across MoHi, I’ll feel nostalgic for the days when I ran into thirty different people I knew just by stepping into the hallway.
2. Not being jaded about Barnard and Columbia.
Remember the days during NSOP when everyone was all, “OMG it’s so great to finally be in college?” Now people’s senses of humor have largely shifted toward making cynical jabs about the lack of mental health support available on campus and how Barnumbia fails its students. Like, we’re all happy to be here, but we don’t feel it as often now that we’ve gotten used to the environment. Sometimes it would be nice to have that shiny new optimism again.
3. Having more time (or at least motivation) to go off-campus.
Most of the Instagram posts I’ve seen this past year of people out exploring the city are from first-years. It seems like upperclassmen mostly give into stress culture and hole up in their rooms or Butler during all weekends. That’s not to say that there aren’t first-years who devote all their time to studying, too, because there are. But at least this past year, the thrill of living in NYC was enough to lure me away from my homework way more often.