Freshmen year is crazy. From moving in to the business of o-week to finding your friends and registering for classes, it seems there isn’t a moment to just sit down and really enjoy it. It’s easy to miss some of the amazing things that freshmen year offers, but maybe this will help you out a little bit.
1. Enjoy dorm life
Yea, you might complain about it now—the small closets, the creaky floors, everyone being RIGHT there—but really, it’s the only time you’ll be in a place where half of your best friends are right down the hall or where your RA gets you free milkshakes or where you can sit in the common room for hours pretending to do work with your hall mates. You might have dorm life your sophomore or junior year, but it will (most likely) never have that same sense of community in it.
2. Marketplace
The same goes for Marketplace. Maybe the food isn’t your mom’s homemade cooking or some fancy restaurant, but still it’s a huge buffet…everyday…No, but really, you can sit in marketplace for hours and see just about every other freshmen and eat all the food you want. There aren’t really any places where you have that environment on campus after freshmen year.
3. Go off campus more
And with the idea of Marketplace food in mind, get off campus! There are so many places in Durham to eat that are pretty easy to get to. I’m still sad that I wasted a full year eating only Marketplace sweet potato fries, however good they may be, without trying Parlour’s cinnamon ice cream, Bull City Burger, or Foster’s pumpkin pancakes. Not only is it really refreshing to be off campus, even if only for a quick meal, but you’re missing out on some of the best places if you don’t. Go do work at the Eno River Rock Quarry or take a study break at Defy Gravity or the Farmer’s market.
4. Walking to Shooters
Cabbing back from Shooters, or worse, walking or running back, kind of puts a damper on the night. And it can be kind of creepy. The walk back to East was always good bonding and funny, albeit freezing and kind of a mess—definitely a convenience you’ll miss next year, as you have to pay and wait for transportation. And speaking of Shooters, ride the bull now. Apparently it’s not quite as acceptable to ride it after freshmen year…even though we all end up doing it anyway.
5. The small talk
As much as we all hate the “what’s your major?” “where are you from?” and those classic ice breaker conversations, it’s kind of nice to just be able to go up to whoever you want, introduce yourself, and chat wherever you are and with whoever is there. This whole ease of conversation and meeting everyone around you goes away by sophomore year, if not earlier, as everyone sits silently on the bus, checking their phones and avoiding contact.
6. All the free food
Literally. Like it’s everywhere. From RAs bringing in free Cookout milkshakes or pizza to all the events at the beginning of the year with free pie and barbeque food, there’s free food at least once a week somewhere for you freshmen. Oh and free t-shirts. My t-shirt drawer could barely close by the end of freshmen year.
7. Being able to take fun classes
By the time you’re a sophomore (or with certain majors even as a freshman), you end up forced into following a certain schedule to fulfill all your many requirements and can no longer take that house course on Ted Talks or the Writing 101 on Disney. So enjoy it while you can! Take classes you enjoy and test different majors until you’re sure. Freshmen year is your chance to find what you are and aren’t interested—no class is a waste.
8. Get involved on campus
Freshmen year may seem super busy, but each year you only have more and more stuff—internships, declaring a major, whatever it may be. So this year is a great time to join different clubs and get involved on campus. It helps you branch out beyond your dorm and your immediate group of friends and meet people you may not have ever met otherwise You make good connections and build up your resume. You find stuff you really love to do and maybe even want to do later with your life. It’s a nice break from work and drama and everything else going on to just follow your own passions.
9. Take advantage of all of the sporting events
People out of college and at different colleges are dying to get into huge sports games. They travel from all over and pay a ton of money to see Duke games. Not only do we get to go for free as students, but people love (and at the same time hate…) tenting so much. It brings everyone so close together and is something you can only do at Duke.
10. Take advantage of all of Duke’s services
I don’t think I realized until a few months ago just how many services Duke has to help us. From getting resume help at the Career Center to internship databases associated with your path of study to just forming connections and flunching professors, Duke has a way to help you in every aspect. Take advantage of that. That just isn’t something you see after college.
Maybe this is freaking you out—all the things you’re just realizing now, second semester with only a few months left, that you haven’t done yet and still need to do in the next four months. You’ve got time. Make a bucket list, figure it out, do the things you want, and enjoy being the babies on campus for the next few months.
Photo: 1