This one goes out to all of the prospective freshmen out there who are lucky enough to pick up a copy of Student Life on a Monday and read this column. I told this year’s incoming freshmen the same thing, so it’s time you heard it.
Anyone who knows me-and that’s about two friends and an internet pen pal in Lahore, India-is aware that I am not a very adventurous person. But when I came to Washington University, I knew that I had to make a concerted effort to change all that and forget my comfort zone (at least for a little while), if I was going to really enjoy myself at all. So, here are tips for the inhibited, the shy, the repressed-anyone who fears that getting involved and getting connected is beyond his or her own reach.
First, pursue everything. In high school, you might have been interested in oh, say, the newspaper. Well, check out the newspaper. Maybe you were politically-minded? So seek out the group on campus that boasts your views. Better yet, seek out the group that doesn’t. In the least, college offers you the chance to better inform yourself about the things to which you have only been briefly exposed, or not at all. Don’t wait until the activity fair to learn about all of the ways you might occupy your free time (not that the activity fair is a bad thing). I am certainly not advocating over-involvement, but I am saying that finding the one or two clubs that suit your interests (or as-yet-undiscovered interests) will work wonders. You’ll meet people off of your floor, and with whom you probably share some common ground.
Next, get off campus-and that’s an order! Do not waste away your time on your hall every weekend or free afternoon. Don’t hole yourself up studying in your room or in some remote corner of the library (though perhaps sometimes you might consider doing so). Get to know the confusingly color-coded shuttle schedule, and get out there. Sure, St. Louis isn’t a bustling metropolis akin to Moline, Ill., or Grand Forks, N. Dak., but it’s certainly better than nothing. I’m not just talking about taking the overcrowded minibus blaring the “Jesus & Friends Hour” radio show to the Galleria Cinemas. Hitch a ride to the Central West End and walk around. Take a brief, $5,498 cab ride downtown and walk around (in the daylight, mind you). Revel in the delight of the elegant but inexplicably tiny Plaza Frontenac, or as I like to call it, Talbots National Headquarters, and greet Matthew in Neiman Marcus shoes while you’re there. Undoubtedly, you’ll hear about the smorgasbord of fun offered by such institutions as Forest Park-don’t ignore these suggestions! And if a free museum or zoo isn’t to your liking, complimentary entertainment awaits you after dark: Just strap on a bulletproof vest and run for your life throughout the darkest regions of the park’s grassy knolls. What fun!
At any rate, kids, I think it’s clear that the only memories you make shouldn’t be in the dim recesses of a fraternity basement guzzling some unknown fluorescent mystery punch. And you shouldn’t just settle for meeting friends in your connecting suite or the room across the hall. Take a few steps out of your personal bubble and be amazed by what you find. If all else fails, I’m willing to share the e-mail address of my Indian pen pal. I’m sure he has some friends.