By Sophia Strawser, Special to The Chronicle
Another week has passed, and our knowledge as freshmen is vastly increasing. We are gradually gaining an internal GPS for the campus, and our group of friends has become concrete. So now what?
It’s time to embrace this life that will be ours for the next four years. In case you are unaware, you are about 30 to 40 minutes from New York city. The Big Apple. Explore it; embrace it; live it. By meandering through the city on weekends, we have the opportunity to transform ourselves from small-town girls or boys to New Yorkers.
I, having a suitemate from the Bronx, am extremely lucky when it comes to getting the inside scoop about the city. If you lack a suitemate from the Bronx and you haven’t befriended any locals, meet your new handy-dandy New York City local—Google. Type in restaurants (I suggest Vapino’s in Union Square), coffee shops (for example: Alice’s Teacup), shopping (if you are a trust fund kid check out the shops in SoHo. My birthday is in two weeks—just saying). Or take advantage of the fact that you are a college student and grab a pair of rush tickets for a Broadway show.
By senior year we all will be riding the subway as if we own it. We pay quite a bit of money to be enrolled in this school, which doesn’t leave a large surplus amount for city adventures. Utilize campus. You are paying for it, so why not explore it?
Au Bon Pain, hidden in the groves of the Academic side of campus, has half-priced pastries, bagels and croissants from six to nine p.m. Sixty-cent bagels just made my day.
Set the daunting “freshman 15” scares aside, and go grab that jelly filled croissant. Here’s to the other side of the Unispan! (I’m currently raising a metaphorical glass.)
Coming full circle now: I understand that we all have those days when the zit on our forehead is too big, the weather is too cold, or we curse out every living thing we see. When those days occur, try cooking in your dorm. I personally make a mean Chai Tea Latte via microwave; others are more adventurous creating pasta, hot pockets, oatmeal, and tiramisu. Befriend those people. It’s your only hope for “homemade food.”
I’m attempting to hold off on the “don’ts,” because I desire for all freshmen to be encouraged to try new things, and not to change things about themselves. But there is one “don’t” that needs to be passed on. Don’t walk like a freshman.
I don’t care if you are from Massachusetts, Delaware, Virginia, or Pennsylvania as I am; you are a New Yorker now, so walk like one. Put your shoulders back, walk briskly, and let’s do this year. ‘Cause we are New Yorkers.