To The New Freshman At St. Lawrence University

The first five minutes will be hard, but that's probably it.

My guess is if you've chosen St. Lawrence, you already know the feeling you get when you walked onto campus the first time and thought "this is it." That feeling will still be there on Orientation Day as you pull up to your dorm and hop out of your car to meet the most friendly group of college kids you will ever see- your Orientation Leaders and Community Assistants. Trust them. Every person that is in one of those positions wants to help you and wants to make your transition to SLU as easy as possible because we have all been there. We all know what it feels like to be leaving home, your parents, your high school friends, what you know, where you are comfortable. But I'm telling you after spending a few days with them you will feel just as comfortable.

Play the name games and ice breakers at Orientation. Learn the chants and songs. You might get a nickname in one of them that will stick but will become something you love. You will find out a lot about the people around you in just a couple of days with them. Do not be afraid to be yourself from the moment you get there. Compliment people on whatever you like about them. You will find friendships in the weirdest ways and connect with people on the smallest things. Run with it. You are all the new kid. You are all scared. You all want to make friends.

Campus will seem huge at first. You will be scared about finding your classes after Orientation. You will leave your dorm about 20 minutes early to make sure you find it. You will then realize it only takes about 5 minutes to walk anywhere on the St. Lawrence campus. You will do things like that for a couple weeks but you will learn quickly and often.

Remember to call your parents. Your first couple weeks of school can get really crazy. You will want to go out and do everything while you are still adjusting to the college class schedule. It might be 10 pm before you get back to your room some nights and it is liberating and exhausting. Your parents will be worried about you, even if you are having the best time of your life. Call before you go to bed, tell them you're fine, that you love them, thank you, and you'll see them soon.

FYP will be interesting. You spend a lot of time with the people in the program with you and more often than not you form a family-like bond with a least some of the people in it. You will live with them, eat with them, go to class with them and go out with them. They will see you during some of your most embarrassing moments at school during your first year and there will be embarrassing moments. You will probably need them to help you open your mailbox, help you find the office of a professor or just have someone to go to dinner with. By the end of FYP, you will have met some of your best friends at SLU.

Many people (including me) will tell you that you are so lucky to have four years left still at St. Lawrence. You'll think they are crazy because most of them will only be a few years older than you, or an even just year ahead of you but it's true what they say, it will be the fastest you will ever see time go. Take advantage of every opportunity that comes your way. Go to that event, or that concert, or that game, or the party. Meet new people constantly, and always be open to new experiences.

You're gonna love it here, I promise.