Collegiate Times

JAMIE MARTYN/COLLEGIATE TIMES

She Said:

Freshman year was a bumpy ride that left a few bruises, but if I could go back I wouldn’t have changed a thing. So what are these rough times I speak of? Well, here are the confessions of a freshman Hokie.

Coming to Tech after living in Delaware meant I knew no one. I couldn’t believe how alone I felt among thousands of people as I walked across the Drillfield, or as I like to call it, the battlefield.

First piece of advice: Prepare for the mob. The Drillfield may look like a nice shortcut, but beware of paper cuts from flyers and tread marks from bikers.

I thought I was going south for school, but I was lucky enough to find that once I came to Tech, Virginia saw its most brutal winter in years. Do yourself a favor and buy a raincoat. Expect the unexpected when it comes to Blacksburg weather.

But I can promise you, football Saturdays in Blacksburg are like nothing else. As poised as I am, it wasn’t surprising to have a shelf dropped on my foot hours before the Nebraska game. Although the doctor thought my foot might be broken, I bled orange and maroon. Over my dead body was that game going to start without me. Word of advice, if you have a broken foot, Tyrod throws a last-minute touchdown, and you’re standing next to a 10-foot wall contemplating jumping it to storm the field, do it. This is going to hurt like hell, but it is — and will always be — worth it.

Football isn’t the only great event at Tech either. Let’s be honest here, whose favorite holiday isn’t one where you get candy? However, last Halloween I learned to never spend as much money on a costume again when I wore pajamas and a facemask instead. The swine flu was a great reminder of what happens when you go to a school with about 24,000 people.

While holidays and events are a blast, you still have to work hard to play hard.

That being said, beware of your laptop. It can and will be a dangerous thing. Farmville spread like a disease on campus as I watched people in large lectures tending to their crops while chatting on Facebook. And maybe you’ll remember someone’s computer hollering, “you’ve got mail” in a geology lecture. Well that blonde who searched the room to find the perpetrator was me. And if you haven’t figured it out already, that screaming laptop was mine as well.

I strongly suggest you mute your computer.

And how can you motivate yourself to work hard? Let’s just say I sometimes let papers go until the last minute, so caffeinated soda became my savior. In case you know as much as me about soda machines, they don’t accept pennies. You soon realize how broke you are when you’re walking around the dorms asking someone for a nickel.

Everyone says it, and they’re right. College is about making mistakes and finding balance. So what if I told you some embarrassing parts of my life? Life is so much better if you can laugh at yourself and enjoy the crazy ride.

My last piece of advice is to keep your room semi-clean if you don’t want to hate yourself at the end of the year. And to the girls out there, look for a strong guy to help you carry your fridge across campus next May. Guys? You’re pretty much screwed on that one.

For all of you freshmen out there, know that you’ll be surprised, but it will be the best four years of your life.

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A version of this article appeared in the Aug 27 issue of the Collegiate Times.