College has come and gone way too fast. Yesterday, we attended our senior breakfast where my hangover from the end of the year party overtook my desire to indulge in free food. After sticking around for hockey overload, guilt trip speeches, weirdly textured pancakes, and a terrible grand announcement about the less than exciting graduation speaker - Michael Capuano, we were asked to take a sheet of BU stationary and write a note to an entering freshman. No instructions, just a plead to keep it clean.
I took one when my roommate handed it to me. I wasn't going to participate in this cheesy class activity until I realized that I would have really appreciated some real, genuine advice from someone who was in my shoes when I got to BU. So, as I sit here gripping every last moment possible from college and not wanting to let go... this is what I came up with:
Hi Freshman!
Congrats on getting into BU. Things are about to change a LOT!.. for the better. You know how they say 'college is the best four years of your life' and 'you find yourself in college'? Well, college is an amazing four years but let's not hope it's all downhill after that. As for finding yourself, it's really true. You're about to change a LOT. It might not feel like it but you'll look back and be surprised. There were days when I hated college - COM Theory, Econ, and Oceanography, made me want to cry, die, scream and explode more times than not. But for the most part, I was head over heels in love with college... and you will be too. Whatever you like, you'll find it here. But that's my main advice to you - FIND IT! Don't let four years pass only to find out there was a place for you that you never discovered. You don't know anyone here... try something new (Flip Cup, Broomball, Tap Class). Play a sport you love on an intramural team. Make LOTS of friends because when you attend events during senior week you'll wish you had people to talk to. You're going to meet the people you want at your wedding. You'll fall in love at least once if you let yourself. Stay active - getting fat in school only adds to your stress. You will get stressed. Get over it! We all get a lot of work to do. We all go broke. Embrace it. Life's too short to complain.
Take classes outside your major. Folk songs is a blast. Take challenging classes - Lovers & Leaders will change the way you think. Study Abroad. This is why college is the BEST four years of your life. Get an internship. Take it from someone graduating during a recession... you only have four years till you are homeless. Make it count.
Explore Boston. Go to Coolidge Corner. Walk down Pleasant Street in West Campus. Go to Harvard Square. Take the 66 bus form Harvard Ave and Brighton. (So much faster than the T). Go running on the esplanade. Watch the sunrise from BU bridge. Go with your friends to Revere Beach.
Stop complaining about the cold - you came to Boston on purpose, remember? Go to a hockey game. I hate hockey but there's nothing like BU Hockey fans. Go to a SOX game. Celtics game. and Bean Pot.
Celebrate Marathon Monday. Go to Audubon Circle on Beacon Street. You'll see why.
Eat at T Anthonys at 1AM on your way home from West.
Go to a toga party at an MIT frat.
Take lots of pictures.
College is amazing. Having to leave will break your heart. BU will make you smarter, more confident, make you feel alive... and give you a weaker liver (Boston = Irish).
Goodluck! Have Fun!
LOVE,
Your Senior
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