Let’s talk #freshmanproblems.
Side note: before I go any further, I apologize to those who — like me — despise the use of hashtags anywhere else but on Twitter because this article will contain a few.
I remember driving down from Northern California (yes, “hella” slips out sometimes, don’t judge me) and soon after, walking up the stairs to my dorm room. Everything else on that day, though, is a blur. Most likely because I was overwhelmed with the fact that I was finally going to be in college.
Like most, I believed Cal Poly would be a perfect world full of bliss: it would be filled with beautiful people, beautiful weather and lovely beaches. And though Cal Poly does actually consist of those three things, I didn’t think about the problems that would come along for the ride through freshman year.
We were so excited about moving on from high school and getting to live our own lives, we didn’t take the time to consider the speed bumps and drama — I thought I’d left in high school — that would occur during our freshman year.
So here’s a look back at those #freshmanproblems. I hope you find the time to laugh as we all remember our confused selves at the beginning of freshman year, which already seems like years ago.
Remember when we heard that wearing a Cal Poly lanyard would instantly scream “freshman” to everyone else on campus, but we wore them around our necks for the first month anyway? Yeah, I’m not exactly sure if that is actually considered embarrassing, but it definitely did let everyone else know you were the new kid on campus. Whether it’s good or bad, you decide. But it is a little weird if you are still wearing the lanyard around your neck. #justsaying.
We were warned about the food from VG Café by everyone — the Cal Poly Class of 2015 Facebook page and our Week Of Welcome leaders, but not about 19 Metro Station. So for the first month, we thought we were eating the best food on campus at Metro. Maybe because it was buffet style, but either way, what were we thinking? #CalPolydiningproblems.
So in an effort to avoid those on-campus dining places, we either ended up using all our Plu$ Dollars by mid-quarter or had a great surplus of Plu$ Dollars — too many to handle. I don’t know how someone can have 800 Plu$ Dollars, but I guess it’s possible. It just means more mugs from Starbucks and groceries from Campus Market. #plu$dollarswag.
Making friends the first month was probably the hardest and easiest thing. Easiest because everyone wanted to be friends with everyone and hardest because you had to figure out who would really be your friend and who was just being your friend because everyone is friendly the first month. But when you found that friend who brought a car with him or her to school and they suggested you two get lunch, you wanted to become best friends with them. #notreallyaproblem.
And then there was, and probably still is, the #freshmanproblem of becoming that one annoying person who would always ask: “Can you give me a ride?” every weekend.
While making friends and meeting way too many people for our minds to handle, we realized what horrible memory we really have. I remember embarrassingly asking someone what their name was five times within 10 minutes. #standardfreshmanproblem.
And finally, it’s a recent problem that you constantly hear the song “Call Me, Maybe” blasting through your dorm for two weeks straight. Either someone’s singing or they’re blaring it from their rooms but you #can’tblamethem.
Freshman year has been full of ups and downs, but there have definitely been more highs than lows. This year wouldn’t be our freshman year without those #freshmanproblems and who knows, maybe there will be some #sophomoreproblems to deal with next year.