As a soon-to-be junior at Saint Mary’s, I’ve learned my fair share of do’s and don’ts. Over the past two years, Saint Mary’s has become a part of me; not just a place I live in part of the year. There are countless opportunities to grow and learn and here are a few valuable lessons I have gathered, thanks to plenty of failures (with a success or two thrown in) over the past two years:
1) Don’t ever walk into a random dorm party (especially if it’s beach themed) because you just might meet the best guys ever, and they might become your best friends. Then you’ll miss them like crazy over the summer. Seriously, who wants to spend their entire summer at home missing Notre Dame boys?
2) Don’t wake up at the crack of dawn to tailgate early for a football game, because Dick Vitale might tweet a picture of you and your best friend. You’ll probably have so much fun that day that you’ll be exhausted and won’t be able to go out that night.
3) Don’t ever use social media to meet people. Definitely don’t talk to the girl you saw on Facebook who happens to be in your freshman year Spanish class. You might find out that you have everything in common and live with her your junior year…and love every second of it.
4) If you ever think that you want to go to a formal with your best guy friend or a few of your best girl friends – just DON’T DO IT. You might end up having one of the greatest nights of your life and it’ll probably be really hard to top that.
5) Please, never call your mom when you’re having a rough day. She might know all the right things to say to make you feel better, and then you’ll have to remember that you aren’t really as grown up as you think you are.
6) It’s so important that you don’t stay until the end of a close Notre Dame football game. They might win in a massive upset, and you might have to rush the football field in the pouring rain when you aren’t supposed to. Who wants to risk getting in trouble for something like that?
7) Never get involved in religious life at Saint Mary’s. Seriously. Don’t attend 7pm mass in Holy Spirit Chapel on the 3rd floor of Le Mans. Father John might give a homily that’s stuck in your head for weeks. Especially stay away from organizations like “Friends With Sisters” that let you spend time with the Sisters of the Holy Cross at the convent. The stories and experiences these incredible women share with you might change your life forever.
8) Whatever you do, I’m begging you to never study abroad. Never go to Ireland for a semester, or Greece or Europe for a summer term, because you’ll just spend the rest of your life with those memories stuck in the back of your mind. The memories you make won’t look as good on a camera, and that’s just upsetting that you can’t share the beauty of the country you visited with your family and friends. It’s too hard to explain with words the taste of that incredible gyro you ate your first day in Athens, or the live music you heard on the streets of Dublin.
9) Last but not least, please, I’m begging you to never make such great memories with your fellow Belles that it is the hardest thing in the world to live without them every summer, and the thought of graduation scares you senseless, and the idea of not living in Le Mans with your best friends right down the hall is altogether too much. Don’t let Saint Mary’s become a part of who you are. Try not to take comfort in the sight of the Avenue. Most importantly, just please don’t fall in love with Saint Mary’s like I have. I promise your life will never be the same and you will spend forever wondering how you ever survived without it.
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Photos 2 and 8 provided by the author
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