Coming to college was our blank slate. It was our time to start a new life, gain new friends and create our new selves. Freshman year is the coveted year to get all of the crazy out before the harsh reality of adulthood creeps up. In addition to being exposed to some of the finest academic opportunities for the first time in our lives, as freshmen we were also exposed to some of the craziest parties, people and exams that we had never experienced before in our previously sheltered high school days. Now that freshman year is coming to a bittersweet close for the class of 2018, it’s safe to say we all have a few freshman habits we are not yet ready to let go of.
1. Reckless behavior being socially acceptableAdmit it. As freshmen we all had our wild nights (and days too) where things got a little out of hand, and we were eternally grateful for the hundreds of miles between us and our over-protective parents. Having “just one more drink” always turned into about five more, and there was probably a funnel involved at some point. There were countless pictures we had to shamefully untag ourselves from on Facebook because, frankly, we will never know why our Friday night selves thought it was a good idea to make our Saturday morning selves too embarrassed to walk through campus the next morning. Yet due to our freshman and therefore naive status, all the booze, boys, heartbreaks and hangovers weren’t ever questioned or frowned upon. Freshman year is just the “Get Out of Jail Free” card in the four years of this monopoly.
2. Being the freshest face on campusAs much as upperclassmen look down on freshmen, it’s mainly because they are jealous that their glory days are over. Everyone loves the freshest faces of the university. Freshmen have their entire four years ahead of them and have so much to look forward to. They will be the lucky individuals who now get to experience everything for the first time, something every older student took for granted. The older guys will freak out over the influx of 3,000+ new freshmen girls, the older students will roll their eyes and go back to studying, and the vicious cycle will perpetuate indefinitely every 12 months.
3. Having an easy scheduleDoes this really need an explanation? Our freshman years are inevitably the easiest classes we will ever take in college. Many professors still have sympathy for us adapting to our new routines and generally our highest GPAs are achieved this way. We may have gotten acquainted with Lib West and Marston Science Library, but it’s safe to assume we will be spending much more needed time there in the future. Hopefully the study habits we form in these easy classes will stick with us through our rougher schedules ahead.
4. Being a “little”Many organizations on campus attempt to make the group feel more intimate by placing us in a “family” to serve as our mentors, role models and hopefully lifelong friends. Most new members in these organizations are the ones who then become some big’s little. As littles, we are showered with gifts, love and acceptance. We have people to look up to and are not given much responsibility yet because we are too busy being coddled into being the responsible bigs we will have to be next year.
5. Living in a dormYes, dorm living is disgusting. Yes, living with another person constantly 4 feet away from you is painful. But yes, we all will miss it. It’s the best worst living experience of our lives. We all will miss the days of hairballs in communal showers, puke in the sinks and loud drunk girls yelling down our hall at 3 a.m. Though we all hope we never have to live in a bed that’s 5 feet tall, we will miss the late nights spent in our hall lounge eating pokey stix with close friends and only having to wake up five minutes before class starts.
May our social lives, sleeping schedules, GPAs and livers recover for next year. Freshman year, it’s been the realeast.