With Orange and Black Day just finishing up, I began to reflect on my decision to come to ONU. If I had the opportunity to go back and search for colleges all over again I would still pick ONU. BUT, there are a couple of things I wish my tour guide would have told me.
1. “It’s windy 'round here.”
Listen, everyone here says it’s windy but I guess in Ohio that has a different meaning. Where I’m from being windy is classified as a soft 10-15 mile an hour breeze that tapers off throughout the day. Windy in Ohio is apparently classified as hurricane strength winds that whip through campus just to knock unsuspecting students off their feet. “It’s Windy” does not begin to describe the weather at ONU.
2. "It gets a little chilly in the winter."
Once again, I don’t think a bigger understatement has ever been uttered out loud. That’s like saying Donald Trump is a little rich or the Albert Einstein was a little smart. My hair literally freezes when I walk outside after I take a shower and walking across the Tundra is gambling with the onset of frostbite. I don’t know what the hell Ohio has done to be cursed with this kind of weather but Mother Nature really hates you all.
3. "The food is OK."
Do I really even have to discuss this? I mean the food has gotten a lot better than when I first got here but come on, at least warn a dude about Mac Attacks before it hits him like a hammer.
4. "Ada is a relatively small town.”
You don’t say…. I’m pretty sure I could throw a rock off the top of Hill and hit every house in Ada. Don’t get me wrong I love the small town atmosphere. But let’s be real here, calling Ada small really doesn’t do it justice.
5. "Freshmen rooms could be a little tight."
I totally agree, with a few stipulations. First, you don’t mind living like Harry Potter stuck sleeping in a broom closet. Second, you don’t mind being able to reach out and touch everything in your entire room, including your roommate, at any time. And lastly, you don’t mind being super intimate and in close physical contact with your roommate, a complete stranger you just met.
At the end of the day I still would have picked ONU over any other school but, I wish people would have told me the whole truth. That way I could have prepared myself for what was to come.
