At last, college is coming. You're finally taking that step into almost-adulthood. You've paid your dues in that hot, sticky classroom for six hours a day, and it's finally time to move up and out.
With that simple notion of taking the next step, there's a million and one things to think about. New roommate, harder schoolwork, better parties, more freedom, crappier dining hall food, and a growing ramen inventory—and that's just scratching the surface. Starting college also gives you the opportunity to distance yourself from who you were in high school and have a fresh identity.
So much change in such a small time period; you can probably hardly handle your excitement. Everything's so new. This is the thrilling feeling that comes with being a freshman.
The title "freshman" is something many new students dread. As high schoolers, students spend years climbing the social ladder just to be reduced back to that haunting label and all its negative undertones.
Upperclassmen will always find ways to incorporate the freshman stereotype into different aspects of college life, leaving first-years desperate to shake the cliche and have their class year remain undetectable.
Despite this harsh label, there's absolutely nothing wrong with being a typical freshman. In fact, you should love your freshman-ly ways for a multitude of reasons.
You have time to embarrass yourself a few times before you have your set group of friends, a few enemies, and an ex or two.
Most upperclassmen can probably recall a time from their first semester where they put it all out there, and wished they didn't.
Maybe things escalated with that weird guy that just keeps popping up everywhere on campus. Maybe you went to class every single day in sweats with no make-up on because you accidentally gave yourself all 8 a.m.'s for the first semester (again, the freshman thing, it happens). Maybe you got sick at that drunk dining place with everyone watching, or maybe you just got really carried away on the dance floor one night.
Guess what? All of that is okay! There were only, like, two people you know who witnessed it at the time because you only knew a handful of people. Forget it, whether it's Greek life, clubs, or just acclimating to your surroundings in general, that privilege is fleeting. Your slips will become more and more identifiable as time passes.
Freshman year is the sole reason for every student's excessive inventory of college apparel.
Again, everyone's so excited they can hardly contain themselves (or their wallets). New students go to orientation solely to drop a few Benjamins on new stuff to rep what they spent four years in high school working towards. They need that crew neck because it'll be essential for tailgate season and that matching hat and those matching yoga pants and the matching socks, of course. Okay, get the underwear, too.
What few of these students realize is that wearing your school's merch is, like, 90 percent less exciting at your actual school. Who are you showing it off to, the people who go to that very same school and who probably own the same shirt? It feels cool off campus and that's about the extent of it. But buying copious quantities of crap feels good. It's essential to the experience. How else would everyone in the world know where you went to school?
Yes, that's me and my first year roommate at orientation. We actually put this on Instagram, too.
Excessive photo taking habits will leave you with double the memories to reflect on.
As time passes, you slowly learn to put the phone down and live in the moment a bit more. While this is something that's on the table for freshmen, there's still an irresistible urge to capture every memorable moment they make contact with.
This may seem annoying to upperclassmen, but you'll be left with thousands of photos to map out your evolution as a college student. It's pretty hilarious to rewind and look back on, and also serves as good blackmail for your best friends' birthday posts.
Your cargo shorts get one last and final hoorah.
This one's for the guys. If you go to a larger school, you're probably going to learn shortly that cargo shorts are avoided like the plague in college.
Freshman have no prior way of knowing of this faux pas and will probably be wandering campus with their many pockets loaded with room key lanyards (if they've stopped wearing it around their neck yet), sharpened pencils, and other lame class necessities for a few months. Time will help them get it together; at least they have a few more months of use out of their new pairs from the summer, before they're finally retired and locked away for good.
You still have so much hope and determination to create the perfect dorm room.
For first years, making guests feel welcome and Instagram followers feel jealous over your perfect dorm room is something lusted over time after time. You've saved about 30 Tumblr screenshots of rooms tangled with Christmas lights and developed photographs. Face it, as you're reading this you have your side of the room totally planned out.
After your first year living away, dorm decorating loses a lot of its luster. It was so draining the first time that round two has become about just winging it. However, it's a ton of fun planning this out and it'll be a space you'll be making your home for quite some time. Go crazy, be over the top with it and enjoy it.
You have someone holding your hand through the whole process.
Be it overprotective parents who call you every single morning, advisors who want to make your college transition painless, or counselors who squeeze you in during finals week because it's your first finals week and you're having a mental breakdown, you have the undivided attention of several individuals who want to help you. Or maybe some of their salaries depend on making freshmen as comfortable as possible. Regardless, you're getting one-on-one consoling that dwindles as the years go on.
You can have no clue about your future, do practically zero in terms of extra curriculars, and still have a successful year from an academic standpoint.
You don't have to worry about any of the crap that upperclassmen are sweating bullets over. Ideally, getting involved and trying new things does complete the picture. But this is the one year that you have the option to just have zero clue what's going on and fully get away with it. You can never say that again, so enjoy it.
To skip the freshman perspective is to skip the thrilling novelty of college life.
Things in life are most exciting when they're new—before the novelty wears off and it becomes routine. Whether it's winning the lottery, getting a puppy, buying new shoes or your latest fling, the initial heat of it is always the most intense. That's what the entirety of freshman year feels like.
Of course, with the highs come the lows (hangover moments where you reevaluate harder than a tacky movie scene), but there's always something exciting around the corner. Be it tailgating, your first Halloweekend, or Spring break, there's always a new "first" around the corner to look forward to.
Maybe you do feel a little lame for being so wide-eyed and new at everything, but those times will be the most memorable when you someday look back.
