COLUMN: Beware the ice and the basketball games
Welcome back or, for you newcomers, just welcome! I hope your time at USU turns out to be some of the best years of your life, although I know in the beginning it certainly doesn’t feel that way.
Starting college is very intimidating. Monday morning, while riding the bus up to campus, I noticed a young man standing in the door well near the back. It was a typical chilly Logan morning, but this guy was sweating. Decked out in a pair of running sweats and a baseball cap, his eyes drooped and sagged, suggesting morning had come a bit too early, yet he stared directly forward, never taking his eyes of the front of the bus. In his hands was a folded up class schedule, the edges worn with worry, and on a lanyard around his neck, a dorm key card. Immediately, as soon as the back bus doors swung open, he hopped out and started making tracks toward the Taggart Student Center.
I little later in the day, I overheard another gentleman on the phone. His conversation went something like this: “Hey you are not going to believe this, but I am right back in the same place that I started from. How do I get there? Which way do I turn again?”
Some of you are thinking, “Hey! That’s me. She’s talking about me?” Maybe true, but I assure you, you’re not alone. The first day of any semester is always crowded with these kinds of stories. I know mine was. In fact, the first day of my first spring semester in college, I hopped off the bus right onto a patch of ice and face-planted on the sidewalk.
Wow! That was not a good day.
But like I said, no worries. You’re among friends, and there are a whole bunch of people out there who would be willing to help you out. Even after falling on my head, there were at least six or seven kind sirs who picked me back up and asked me if anything was broken. They were chuckling a little, but you can’t really blame them. I looked ridiculous.
So if you get lost, ask someone around you, a student, a professor or an employee. It’s cool. We’ve all been there. Have a question, same deal. I think you’ll find USU a pretty friendly place, except at the basketball games. You’ll see. Happy studying.
Mikaylie Kartchner is a senior majoring in print journalism. Comments can be sent to mikayliek@cc.usu.edu.