Welcome to College, the culmination of 12 of the hardest years of your life. You’ve been through SATs, ACTs, and APs. Let’s not forget the extra-curriculars, and the fact you had to be elected to a position in some club at some point or else your life was over.

Well, you made all those lifelong friends along the way, probably had a significant other or two, went to your final homecoming, graduation and the prom. You felt the heartache of leaving some of your closest friends, and cried as Snookums-boobie-woobie-pah left you behind to start a new life. But such is life; everyone does it, and you have left everything familiar behind. You’ve climbed the final mountain and forded the final stream. You have arrived.

Actually, you have not.

I hate to break it to you, but you haven’t even started yet. First off, let me instruct you to check your former life at the door. Memories are nice, but they aren’t dreams, and if this place is about anything, it’s about chasing your goals. Who’s scared out of their mind right now? Face it, you are, all of you. You, your roommate and that kid who’s already memorized everyone’s birthday. And you want to know something else? It’s perfectly fine.

I remember looking around my first day and realizing that everyone was smarter than me. There is no better ego-check in the world than college. You will see people you envy because they’re smarter, more sociable, or because they smell better. Don’t worry because unless you’re me, people have something good to say about you, too.

Hmmm, what next? Oh yeah, the social scene. Okay, so you’ve seen movies and television shows that make college look like a large drunken orgy. Well, here it’s only a drunken orgy for a lucky few. For the rest of us, being social means a myriad of things.

As a freshman, you will go to frat row more than once. There you will be crammed into a dark room where there is no air conditioning and you will converse with people just because the heat in the room has physically fused you together. You will drink Miller High Life, the champagne of beers and a close evolutionary cousin of urine. (We’re still looking for the missing link.)

Doing schoolwork on weekends will seem like a joke. Once you are a sophomore, however, you will get wasted, throw up, and then start a paper in the 20 minutes before you pass out. Your mother will be proud.

Now I am a male, and being a male I know what guys are thinking, having watched all that MTV Undressed. They are very excited about the concept known as the “hookup.” Now I could write multiple articles on this subject alone, but instead I will leave you with advice that no one can argue with. For the bunny’s sake, THINK ABOUT WHAT/WHO YOU ARE DOING!!! That is all.

I can’t forget that whole academics thing either. MAJOR IN WHAT YOU WANT AND ONLY WHAT YOU WANT. I was pre-med . . . twice. I decided I hated it . . . twice. Hopefully I’ll stick with it this time. Being a college student demands that you broaden your horizons both in and out of the classroom.

Oh yeah, the reason I was invited to write this article is because I am a co-vice president of Ashoka, the Indian Students Association here. We do a show called Diwali that involves acting, singing and dancing-something for everyone. I invite everyone to try out, or come watch the show.

I also encourage you all to attend all the other cultural events on campus like ALAS’ Carnaval, the Chinese New Year Festival, and ABS’ Black Anthology, among others. Face it, kids, it’s your duty to learn something here; be it about someone else, or about yourself. I hate to say it, but these are the best years of your life. Welcome.

Anindya is a junior in Arts & Sciences, and he is the co-vice president of Ashoka. He can be reached via e-mail at [email protected]

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