All too often we hear from our elders that “youth is wasted on the young.” I, of course, like the rest of us, have always brushed off this statement. However, as I was traveling through Gilbert Hall recently, I came to my own realization that allows me to better identify with these older and wiser members of our society: being a freshman is wasted on the freshmen.
There are some things about my freshman year I wish didn’t occur: multiple embarrassing, awkward moments that I – and everyone else involved – would like to forget. However, this fear and uneasiness subsided quickly and I was soon re-submerged in a world of fun and excitement waiting to happen.
Reason number one why freshman year is so great: at any time, day or night, you’re guaranteed to walk down the hall and run into someone who wants to engage in a random conversation with you and divert you from your work. The comraderie found on a freshman hall is unparalleled. Where else can you walk into a lounge at 2 a.m. to find it full and stay for another two hours talking about nothing or discovering how your cell phone makes really weird noises if you tap into the special settings and then put it close to your mouth and change the formation of your lips? To top it all off, you won’t be the last one to leave, even though everyone has classes at nine and 10 the next morning.
Reason number two why freshman year is so great: you think you have a lot of work to do, but you really don’t. I yearn for the free time I had freshman year-when I could actually procrastinate on Facebook for hours and it wouldn’t affect me or my grades and when I could talk on the phone for hours at a time, all while only feeling slightly guilty about all the things I didn’t do that night. And, as soon as you enter sophomore year, you actually have to think about declaring a major and taking real classes. Eww.
Reason number three why freshman year is so great (and by far my most favorite): you can act crazy and no one cares. When else can you decide to walk around your hall in your boxers for the entirety of the night just because your hall decided that it’s necessary to have “No Pants Monday” every Monday? Where else, other than in a freshman dorm, is it perfectly OK to yell obscenities at the top of your voice down the hall to someone you know and the only response you get is a burst of laughter?
My final reason why I think freshman year is so great: you have the maximum amount of time left in college. I think just about every upperclassman out there wishes that he or she had as much time left here as you do. It’s just not fair!
So, to all you freshmen out there, I am not just a whiny sophomore fed up with her life this week; I truly believe everything I write. Maybe now I will open your eyes a little to the wonderful times you are currently experiencing and you will take some time to embrace it. Celebrate your amazing life, Class of 2010!
Philbrick can be reached at ephilbrick@campustimes.org.
