"Oh, what I would give to be a freshman again."
Maybe I wouldn't go as far as to say that, but being the new kids on the block does have its perks. However, being a third year kind of rocks, too. Here are some of the first year perks.
Meal plan vs. home cooked meals. The single most jealousy-inducing topic of being a freshmen is your lovely little meal plan. What a third year would give to not have to scrounge together quarters and dimes to pay for that second trip to Starbucks, not to mention the recent delectable additions to SDSU’s campus cuisine: Subway, The Habit (delicious burgers, milkshakes -- everything), Oggi's, Bruxie and another Starbucks. Bitterness is coursing through my veins as I cringe at the $8 I drop when I feel like splurging on the skimpy burritos at the campus Chipotle. What I would give to wake up, swipe a little card, and have a Rockstar Lemonade and a donut in hand without hearing my bank account wail in protest. Granted, the meal plan is “hella expensive," but so convenient.
Being broke vs. being broke. There’s no getting around that one. Freshmen year is expensive, sophomore year is expensive, and being a super senior is expensive. Dorming costs an arm and a leg; on-campus housing costs a few internal organs. Books drain your savings account and you might have to dip into your retirement fund, this month, to pay for Netflix and utilities. At least freshmen get a free ARC membership, and can use that meal plan on $5 ShakeSmarts. There is no bright side to the expenses of college, but at least go Greek and make the experience worthwhile.
Having an RA vs. needing supervision. Sure, having a resident advisor is less than ideal. Having someone watch your every move and scold you for skateboarding down the hall at 3 a.m. on a Tuesday, is just annoying. Being reprimanded for sneaking a keg into your bedroom is just petty. Checking in a guy you met 45 minutes ago at the front desk of a building where hundreds of 18 year olds have never lived on their own before, seems absurd. Working the front desk at the residence halls on campus, I have heard and seen it all. While many freshmen are not pleased with the close eye being kept on them, they should be grateful. Having a residence advisor is a nice segue from the confines of living with your parents; it’s almost like living with a cool uncle or an older sister. They keep an eye out for you, but at the end of the day, you can do what you want and they cannot scold you like your parents would. I would love to call an RA every time something leaks, a bug crawls out of my shower or I’m having a mental breakdown during finals week. But, unfortunately, when you move out of campus housing, no one is required to care about you.
Dorms or apartments vs. real life houses. Besides residence advisors, there are a multitude of other perks to living in a dorm. For instance, community showers and cooking all of your meals in a microwave. Oh, that would be the downside. Between squeezing in a twin sized bed, cringing when your roommate turns on a light in the early hours of the morning, and rearranging your furniture 1000 times in an attempt to make the room appear larger, residence halls can suck. While it seems so tempting to wish away your year in a dorm and move into a house, keep this in mind. At no other time in your life will you be surrounded by so many humans whom you share so much in common with. Sure, a house will be fun: shopping at IKEA for wall tapestries, buying a couple of cute gnomes and not doing dishes in your bathroom sink. But houses come along with bills, a massive space to clean, and they require you to find roommates you can tolerate. However, if you live in an apartment that was renovated into a dorm, I am green with envy at your good fortune.
Free stuff vs. bitterness. I cannot repeat this enough: bask in the glory of free stuff -- free shirts, free sunglasses, free lanyards, free hot dogs, free anything. basically. By your third year of college, you will be beyond grateful to see the smiling human standing on Campanile with a free scantron. Those Aztec for Life shirts are valuable merchandise when you need a shirt for the gym, but don't want to do laundry. You take free for granted as a freshman, and as a third year you well up with tears when there are free bagels on campus.
Zero preconceived notions vs. information overload. Ignorance is bliss, kind of. It sucks not knowing your way around campus, or getting laughed at for referring to Associated Students as ASB. But, there's something miraculous about the first time the freshmen get off the trolley for a football game, or the first time they hear the, "I Believe," chant at The Viejas Arena. By third year, you know that the first three Aztec Nights are fun, and then people stop showing up. You know which professors are less than ideal. You know every reputation of every organization on campus. You know that Fridays are basically campus holidays, and an 8 a.m. Monday, Wednesday, Friday is a wretched idea. By the third year you have set expectations, and not much impresses or surprises you. So soak it all in while it's new and shiny.
