Don we now our hot apparel fresh from the Gap catalogue! Tra-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la!
Tis' the season indeed, the season past the Christmas in July sales and before the Back to School sales at Wal-Mart. It is a time where freshly graduated high school students enter the mysterious panty-raiding world that is college. Whether it's a local community college, a state university or that overrated 100K a year popularity school that is the Ivy League, young and impressionable students will enter this world that will change their lives forever.
As an alumnus from Washington State University (now graduate student at the University of North Dakota), I underwent the transformation from green freshmen peon to the shower-gown-clad graduate walking the line to shake someone's hand who I had never met to receive a $100,000 receipt that is known as a college diploma. I, too, experienced all the joys, trials and tribulations of college such as all-nighter study sessions, the Greek System and a very interesting tradition known as "panty raids." These things and more have shaped me into the man that I am today: a child who still refuses to grow up.
Freshmen will quickly learn valuable lessons from college that they never learned living under someone else's roof or in high school, such as wearing flip-flops in public showers, organization of one's schedule, budget management and not mixing colors and whites in the darned laundry machine (unless you really like pink). Such lessons are often learned by trial and error (usually error) and the humiliation that typically accompanies such learning experiences. I can remember the first time I learned to properly use a condom and no, it wasn't in high school health class but when I actually had to learn how to use it in a real situation. Needless to say, I had to swallow my pride (amongst other things) to admit to the not-so lucky lady that I needed help putting it on. I have never made the same mistake again . . . just all new ones.
If you are an incoming freshman or are a freshman, you may have experienced such disorientation from being away from home for the first time; away from parental controls such as curfews and money management. It can be a bit overwhelming to anyone who truly lived under someone else's roof for 17-18 years. Here are some symptoms of being an overwhelmed and/or inexperienced freshmen:
1: You're 17-18 and you still do not know how to use a laundry machine and/or never used one that involved a coin machine.
2: You think the "freshman 15" is actually a myth.
3: You attend more clubs than classes.
4: You actually PAY for beer and/or pornography.
5: You've never had pizza more than one night a week, much less two days in a row.
6: You can't find any scholarships, big or small.
7: You honestly think 90% of life is "just showing up."
8: You think flip-flops are just for the beach.
9: You honestly cannot find anything to do on the weekends (exempt if you attend UND).
10: You're attending college for any other reason than your own.
If you fall under any of these categories then you sir/ma'am are a cherry freshmen and it's nothing to be ashamed of (unless you fall under No. 4, then you're just not thinking straight), since we've all been there. This article is for you; the inexperienced freshmen just entering college for whatever reason. The song "Clique" by Good Charlotte says it all . . .
"The best years of our lives aren't as easy as it seems."
College can easily be the best and most defining years of your life, it's entirely bent on what you put in and your attitude. Hate college and you will gain nothing except for a $30,000-$100,000 bill that is wasted. Give it all you've got and you just might make it to those goofy walking, talking shower curtains at graduation. These articles will address the most common issues a freshman endures, and I'm not talking about time management or working hard in class; I'm talking about surviving the social standards, the culture clash, the changes, the partying, etc.
Let's face it: college is 90% social since you're more than likely to remember who you woke up next to the day after as opposed to the quadratic formula or the social deviancy of wolf culture in Fairbanks Alaska. Survive the first year and it's smooth sailing. Coming soon is the complete Freshmen Survival Guide for 2007; updated and tuned for you!
Stick around!
~Tim
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