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EDITOR IN CHIEF
Ryan Frank
EDITORIAL EDITORS
Jonas Allen, Kaineron Cole
The college adventure
C7~ 'san C
i Jritemctro e T
experience 1
Freedom from parents allows freshmen to discover fun, \
friends and themselves \
Hey freshmen, welcome to the
world!
Maybe this statement is some
what broad, but if we all re
member our first year of freedom, away
from the watchful eye of mom and dad,
we’ll laugh, shed a tear and wonder how
we made it through.
A smile. A nod. We all know the look.
It’s the "Hey, you live in the dorms. Maybe
we can be friends sometime" that lights up
the faces of uncorrupted freshmen experi
encing their first taste of freedom.
Oh, the freshman men
tality of freedom: no more
curfews or checking in
with mom and dad. Finally
on their own, many fresh
men are testing the waters
of the big school, meeting
new people who they think
will be their friends forev
Opinion
er—and loving the fact they
can stay up all night and do Amy
whatever they want. Goldhammer
And the first few weeks —^—
are like this.
Your classes and Freshman Interest
Groups are easier than expected, and the
kids in your hall are fun to party with. Per
fect. What could be better?
But wait.
Could there be such a thing as too much
freedom all of a sudden? What happens
when Tyler drops out, or your new friend
Jan discovers heroin? When you’ve lost
your virginity to some person you met at a
party, or you’re on your knees praying to
the porcelain throne and yearning for
mom to be there with a cool cloth, holding
your hair back and saying you will be
okay.
Guess what? You will be okay.
Freshman freedom doesn’t necessarily
consist of complete and utter chaos. The
good parts just get hidden sometimes. Be
ing proud of yourself because you passed
up beer-bonging lessons to study for a test
is a good thing. Knowing that you have
taken care of yourself for the confusing
first days of school without help from
parents is something you can smile
about.
You realize that you study for
you, not for mom, dad or your high
school guidance counselor. You’ve fin
ished the SATs and made it to the big
school now. It’s your choice whether
you study, and most of you will at some
point. How you treat your education is
in your hands. It’s a different way to en
joy the new-found blessing of freedom.
This new freedom allows you to
discover what you like, that you
can’t write a three-page paper in
German, or that your new passion
is marine biology. And all this
new stuff is cool.
The long lines for buying
books are scary, but that weird
professor who sucks all the life
from a subject really will an
swer your question during his
office hours. The upperclass
men aren’t that mean, and they
will even point you in right di
rection if you’re headed back
wards (presuming you catch one
in a good mood).
Your opinions all of a sud
den matter, and people value
what you say. You’ll meet
t
friends who will become your
support and entertainment. They
will grow with you, experience with you,
try to guide you, but mostly—be lost with
you.
You’ll lose friends you had and mis
place others along the way. But somehow
they will be there for you when you need
them (it’s a dorm thing). Remember, they
just got their taste of freedom, too.
Over half of you have no idea where
your lives are headed, but that’s okay. You
don’t need to be scared yet. A handful
may even be lucky enough to figure their
way around campus early in the year.
Freedom/
Stick by these people. This way you won’t
accidentally wander into an Organic
Chemistry midterm.
So go out and about. Explore. Have fun
being free from the watchful eyes of mom
and dad.
But be careful. You’ll be surprised at
what you stumble into out there.
Try to remember that you don't need to
turn yourself into a human “kegerator," as
tempting as it may sound. Don’t smoke it if
you don’t want to. And keep your nose
clean.
Freedom is your state of mind, so do
what you want. All of you earned it. And
remember: You are going to be fine.
Hey, if you can do your laundry without
turning everything pink—you’ve come a
long way, baby.
Amy Goldhammer is a columnist for the
Emerald. Her work appears on alternate
Wednesdays. Her views do not necessarily rep
resent those of the newspaper.
TO ASUO VOTER
REGISTRATION:
The ASUO is registering
voters and hopes to get
students involved in
this year's elections.
Less than 38 percent of
Oregon's registered
voters exercised their
right in the last primary
election. Here’s to the
ASUO’s success.
TO MAJOR LEAGUE
BASEBALL:
In this season of home
runs and heroics, Mark
McGwire and Sammy
Sosa revitalized Ameri
ca’s interest in the na
tional pastime. Now,
who said baseball was
boring?
TO A POSSIBLE EXERCISE
PILL:
American researchers have dis
covered a genetic "switch" that
triggers the effects of exercise.
They hope to eventually create a
pill based on their findings.
Coming from one of the world's
least healthy countries, this
could be a bad discovery.
TO THE UNIVERSITY ATHLET
IC DEPARTMENT:
Athletic Director Bill Moos re
cently asked football fanatic
Scott Spaan to stop beating op
posing teams’ stuffed mascots
after the Ducks score. Spaan is
now limited to swinging the
mascots through the air. Watch
for flag football soon.
Correction
On Sept. 29,
Steve Lyons
should have
been referred to
as the Delta Sig
ma Phi presi
dent in the page
one cutline. The
Emerald regrets
this error.