The first week of classes, hangovers and nauseating freshmen are finally behind us. You are moved into your new place for the semester and trying to get settled in and comfortable. Getting comfortable might take a while whereas the process to comprehend the amount of freshmen on campus will never ease.

     As you are entering campus with a half-witted smirk on your face, keep a couple things in mind. First things first, your apartment or dorm room will never look like the magazines. No college student can afford all Gucci clothing to fill a closet or antique couches to store in a living room. Have you driven around Brookings recently? Those torn couches sitting on the edge of the road are not just for looks. They are a hobo’s dream here in “B-Town”. These bargain deals are literally the definition of Brookings, S.D.

     Welcome freshmen! Welcome to the quickest way to go broke. It is called college and if you do not feel lucky to be here already then you better start thanking everyone. Just imagine if college was affordable to everyone; society would be better off. Welcome to the most overwhelming part of your late teenage years. Do not let the angry looking, hard to understand, weird named professors intimidate you. They do not always look that cranky, only in a class full of dull students who watch Netflix through their lectures. Do not be that student. 

    Put a good head on your shoulders. We are a week in and things are bound to happen. You might get hit by a bike while walking. Don’t be that biker. You could get run over by a hippie long boarder. Do not turn into that skater. The solidarity we have when you join college never really goes away like the annoying school supplies list we drooled over in elementary school. No more scented markers for coloring inside the lines. You make your own lines here and use ball point pens, blue or black, for your colors. Here we use mechanical pencils with blue and yellow erasers. We do not hang our lanyards around our necks with one key dangling from the bottom, unless you absolutely have to.

    Whether you are a freshmen or a returning student, we you welcome back. School may be competitive but take it with a grain of salt because that is what makes you better. You may want to just stop and quit but that is not what Brookings is about. Soak in the rivalries, the games, the memories and the humidity.

 

Brianna Arity is majoring in early childhood education. She can be reached at [email protected].