Dear College Freshmen,
The other day, I was talking to my friend and she told me she saw a girl in the library crying because the girl didn't know how to work the elevator to get to the fifth floor. In hindsight, I'm surprised I was not more shocked/concerned/humored when I heard this story. I was only a freshman two years ago, yet that seems like such a different era. Such a different me. If you're reading this, I hope you're a college freshman, and to be honest, I hope you're having a rough time. Let me clarify: I only hope you're having a rough time so you can appreciate all the lovely times. I hope you miss your mom and your dad and your annoying older sister who hogs the TV. It'll make you want to squeeze them even tighter the next time you seem them. I hope you struggle at first with your classes -- that way you'll learn a solid study and work ethic before the crap hits the fan junior year. I hope you make some really cruddy friends at first. You know, the ones that convince you to go out on a school night that ends with you puking in the bushes in front of your dorm. The ones that convince you dipping is cool and it takes you one try to find out it is so NOT. That way, you can meet someone really incredible friends who are always down for a good cry sesh and some wine.
I hope you have some nights you regret. Some nights you wish you could forget. That way, you can have room for all the wonderful ones. There's a picture out there somewhere of me making out with a girl dressed like a microwave at a Halloween party. Usually, I block out this night in order to make room for the memory of an impromptu donut and dance party on the top floor on a parking garage with my lovely friends.
I want you to be the girl in the library, having a conniption in the library about an elevator because to be honest, sometimes the most panicked moments of my college experience have been the ones that feel the most genuine. Most of us don't know what the hell we are going to do with our lives. You'll probably change your major once... or four times, like me. You'll probably fall in love and out of it. You'll probably throw up in a friend's car after a crazy Halloween house party and eat a whole Hungry Howie's pizza in one night. You're going to scream, cry, laugh and pull your hair out. You may even be like me and have a nervous breakdown in Atomic Coffee one day over your rhetoric final. My point being, I want you to experience all the bad as well as the good. I want you to remember your freshman self and see how much you grow.
And to the girl in the elevator -- just keep on keeping on.