During our brief stay in Pittsburgh, we happened upon the incoming freshman class at CMU. People, I can’t begin to describe the feeling of being totally bowled over by the wave of nostalgia that hit me square in the face and left me lying with my back on the ground, wondering how it could possibly be that I’m almost running out of fingers (on BOTH OF MY HANDS) to count the number of years since I was a freshman.
After peeling myself off of the sidewalk, dusting myself off, and repeating “I’mnotthatoldI’mnotthatoldI’mnotthatold” to myself for a few minutes, I was ok again. Given my experience with high school and how elated I was to finally be out of that place, I never thought I’d be the type of person who would look back on college with this type of fondness. But I am. Each and every time I come back to this city, I find it harder to leave, harder to believe I ever left.
So, to all you freshmen (and freshladies) out there, here are my words of wisdom to you:
Never take this view for granted. Through the course of your four (give or take a year or two) years here, you will have this view and you will see it every day on your way to and from campus. You don’t know it yet, but this view is amazing. It will send you off as you leave to go back home on holidays and it will welcome you back when you return. I find this view to be one of the most comforting things about returning to Pittsburgh.
Learn to love and appreciate the ketchup. No, seriously, the city has so much history. Go out and find it and embrace it. Get out of the dang computer clusters once in a while. Your homework will still be there when you get back, and by the time you’re out in the real world, no one will care that you submitted that one assignment 10 minutes past the 2:12am deadline. TRUST ME ON THIS.
Do as Delilah says — love someone tonight. (Or put up with it, because the only other stuff you’ll hear on the radio in those parts is country music…not that there’s anything wrong with that. Just sayin’.)
Go to the half price dinners often. Fuel and Fuddle is a staple for many. (I regretfully missed out on this bandwagon.)
Order whatever you dang well please, but try the baked brie.
No, seriously, try it. Otherwise, you will spend nearly half a decade out of school, listening to people reminisce about how amazing the baked brie was, only to go back and try it and be slightly disappointed by all the hype. I’m not saying it wasn’t good, just that perhaps our college student taste buds were not so…refined? So try it before the magic fades.
Forget the Freshman 15. No one cares how much you weigh anyway (and why would you want to associate with the people who do?). Never skip an opportunity for a ginormous ice cream cookie from The Underground, or a trip to Dave & Andy’s. Get the cone. You will not regret it.
I still dream about Dave & Andy’s birthday cake ice cream. Never in the history of my life have I been able to polish off this much ice cream in one go, but I make an exception for this every time. Life’s too short not to get the cone.
And lastly, just enjoy it. The time goes by faster than you think. Before you know it, you’ll be coming back to visit and seeing the new freshman class come in. And then you’ll feel old. And then you’ll go home and blog about it and start dishing out crazy advice to a group of strangers you’ve never met, who don’t know you exist, and who don’t give a rat’s butt what you have to say to them.
Not that I’d know. Just sayin’.
