Wow.
The last week has been insane.
In the last week, I’ve said goodbye to the dorm room I made my home, my best friends and the life I created for myself. And I know a lot of you have too. So this one goes out to the college freshman, class of ’23 (I broke it up into sections and shared some of my freshman year mems so I don’t forget them).
We don’t have it as bad as the seniors in high school or college, but I get that this is hard. We braved an entirely new part of our lives – living without our parents, making all our own decisions, meeting tons of new people – just to be uprooted once we were settling in. The only way to explain this entire thing is that … it sucks.
But it WILL be okay.
We have more years living without our parents, more years to make all our own decisions and more years hanging out with all those new people that we turned into our own version of family. This was just the beginning and we will have more time than just this year.
We took on welcome week (let’s talk about how annoying the great tommie get together was tho).
Memories: Big “thrill” factory (it was not big or a thrill lemme tell ya), walking to the cliffs at midnight to find David (just for him to be leaving once we got there smh), Roller-Skating (tyler and joey you two owe your friendship to this), five girls one can (really Ireland?? You can do better), the chapman’s (need I say more?), and Quinn and I ditching midway through Tyler’s party for some reason.
We braved our first semester of college classes and got involved.
Memories: My very first college class was Macroeconomics with Professor Wu and it lasted exactly 10 minutes (we love how chill the econ department is), I met some of my best friends through student government (Sophia and Haison I love y’all, we will always have the freshman semi formal in our hearts), and the honors retreat (if you were in the sauna I will have a permanent bond with all of y’all).
We explored the city that was now our home.
Memories: Even if that meant hopping on the shuttle (running to Greg’s added to the experience, if you took an uber there you are WEAK), Black Coffee & Waffle Bar and Bark slap (sorry for the Olivia verbage), and walking to the river at 2 am to look at your city gives you a completely new perspective on the city (sorry Nolan that we had to interrupt your sleep for girl time).
We created relationships and bonds.
Memories: I can say that, without a doubt, I met the people that I never EVER want to leave my life.I can’t even name all of the people that made my freshman year such an incredible experience. If I gave you more than an hour of my time per week, just know you mean something to me. I love y’all more than you even know. UST wouldn’t be home with all of you.
I, personally, left high school never feeling more satisfied with myself. I really truly didn’t think I could go up from there. I thought high school would be my peak. I was incredibly wrong. UST in seven months created more memorable moments for me than four years at Eagan.
And I believe that’s something important to acknowledge. We may think that when one chapter ends, the next won’t be as good. It won’t be the same, that’s for sure, but that doesn’t mean it won’t meet or exceed your expectations. So next year I might not be living in Dowling 546, I might not have brunch every weekend at the View, I might not be able to run over to Brady hall whenever I need attention…but it could be even better that that.
So here’s to having no regrets (well except that first week of school when Olivia and I didn’t run through the fountain. Olivia, we are doing that the first day we get back). Freshman year may be over, but we have so very much to look forward to.
Class of ’23, we got this.
With Love, Marin