Your pencils are sharpened. Your schedule is made. Your glasses are polished. Your outfit is ready. Your dorm is clean. You stand at the door ready to begin a journey that will take you through four years of learning, growing, laughter, new friends, all-nighters, weekend adventures and so much more. It all starts now — the first day of your first week. To an untrained eye, you are more than ready to take that step outside and jump headfirst into your college career. Ah, but I know better. I was once a freshman too. And now, as a wise upperclassman, I am here to give you some inside tips on how to really survive Week One at Boston University.
Step One: Check out your classes beforehand. Give yourself a mini tour of the campus with your schedule in hand before classes start. Some buildings are easy but more often than not, you’ll have a class in some random place or floor that only a skilled navigator will be able to find. You start to wonder if finding the classroom is a test to weed out the less fortunate. Don’t be labeled as a straggler on your first day. Walk in on time without breaking a sweat and show your professor their scare tactics won’t work on you. This will also help you figure out distances and times between classes and dining halls so you can start perfecting your routine.
Step Two: Leave your textbooks behind. Your first class will be an introduction and overview of the course and your professor’s many exciting plans and credentials. Most of the time will be spent reviewing the carefully constructed syllabus. You’ll realize that for most classes you won’t even need to lug those 10-lb. weights of knowledge around. Class is for taking notes and asking questions. At the very least, you show up for exams and to turn in papers. All of that reading and studying will be done on your own time.
Step Three: Be a freshman. Go to every single event during that first week. Scribble down your email on every sign up sheet at SPLASH. Join six a cappella groups, four drama troupes and 12 other clubs. Take every flyer and free shirt, sticker and poster thrown your way. Decorate your room with 52 photographs of your high school shenanigans. This is the only time for the next four years that you will be able to be so unapologetically excited about the first week and everything we are throwing at you. Take it in stride and soak it all in. Don’t try to be above it. Embrace it because even though these things happen every year, they are only new once.
My dear freshmen, I envy you. Take a look around before you step out that door. You have prepared yourselves well, and now you are armed with the kind of hindsight advice other freshmen can only dream of. Take these tips to heart and be confident. You are ready for this. You have been waiting for this moment. And while I look forward to BU every year, you never forget your first.
Dany Vasquez is a junior in the College of Communication and a Spring 2012 columnist for The Daily Free Press. She can be reached at vasquezd@bu.edu.
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