Welcome Class of 2022. It’s a new year, a new you, and it’s time to start life on your own. We’ve just graduated from high school and worked our way through summer to get to where we are at now, whether it’s sitting in our dorm with the roommate that could be our maid of honor or sitting in a classroom simply because it’s air conditioned.
It may seem like we’re staring down the barrel of a loaded gun, a bullet of homework, and overwhelming stimuli — but everyone’s gone through it. The senior you met at orientation? They went through what you did. They were no different.
The class of 2022 has so much to look forward to. We’ve seen so much more than any other class. We were alive for 9/11, we saw our first African American president be sworn into office, we witnessed the legalization of same sex marriage, and we were here from the transition of flip phones to smartphones.
This class will be resilient, as we so often have had to be. We are the generation that gave a voice to kids 18 and under simply because we know how to connect online with people we’ve never met through nothing more than a common interest. In the face of gun violence, terrorism, discrimination and the epidemic of drugs, we power on.
And now we start college. For some of us, it’s our hometown, our high school friends. For others, it’s a new town, a new state, or a whole new world we must learn to navigate. It’s been hyped up to the point of cliche, but it’s not as scary as it seems. You’ll move into your dorm, you’ll meet your roomate, and you’re going to have some fun times and some hard times.
Everyone’s going to say get involved, so do it! Always talk to people, always join clubs, always show up to the campus event, just put yourself out there — no matter how dumb it may sound. And if it’s really dumb, well at least it got you out of your room and I bet you got some sort of freebie out of it.
You can also meet new people. Every freshman on campus wants to make friends, even if they don’t seem like it. Approach someone shy sitting in the dining hall alone. They may need a friend more than you can ever know. No one wants to be alone as a freshman. If you are the shy girl sitting alone in the dining hall everyday, break out and don’t be afraid to be yourself and get out of your comfort zone.
Make your dorm feel like your home, because that’s what it’ll be for the next year. Make it your own space, make it like the room you never had. Enjoy your independence. This is the first time in your life where you are free to go where you want, do what you want and, most importantly, be who you want.
This is the beginning of something great and we are in this together. College is more than textbooks and class. This where the rest of our life begins. Welcome to the Class of 2022, we’re in it for the long haul.