New bear,

By the time you read this, you will probably want to punch the next person who says “Welcome to LR." After all, you have just been through orientation, which was nothing but a four-day long welcome session. You’ve seen leaders dance, you’ve met your RA’s, and you have done enough icebreakers to last a lifetime. Trust me, we have all been there.Orientation is your first official act as a Lenoir-Rhyne bear, a title that will stay with you for the rest of your life. You’ve had your official school-led welcome, now let me give you the unofficial welcome.

Welcome.

I am, as are every other student and professor on campus, incredibly excited you’re here. LR is small, so to come here means a lot to us. You are part of the biggest freshman class in history, so congrats on being a part of that! You have just signed yourself up for four years of classes, football games, late-night pizza sessions, early-morning Starbucks, and the constant sense of community that is only found at LR. College is one of the most unique communities you’ll ever be in, and (hopefully) have some of the best times of your life. And by going to LR, you’ll have even rarer and even better experiences than you could imagine. Despite being so small, there’s a niche here for everyone—whether your more for athletics, Greek life, the arts, or most anything else, you’ll be able to find something here for you.

Just like every older generation before me, I have many hopes and dreams I have for you all. I hope you do find your place here, whether it be with the Quidditch team, Honors Academy, SGA, or College Republicans. I hope you experience the same love and acceptance everyone before you has been lucky enough to experience. I hope you are never late to a free t-shirt event, though those events seem to occur at least once a week. I hope you never lose your keys, you have extra BearBucks, and ace that final you were worried about. Most of all, I hope you grow to love Lenoir-Rhyne as much as I, and many others here, do.

Because Lenoir-Rhyne is special; it is a beautiful kind of different. No other school has such a gorgeous yet small campus. No other school offers so many opportunities, and such varied ones—opportunities for careers, for social life, for connections, for free stuff. No other school is the perfect blend of small and large-spread, of close-knit and sprawled out, of influential and unknown.

Treat it as special and beautiful and flawed and perfect as it is. You won’t ever experience this again. Love it. Live it. Never forget it.

I can’t wait until you do.