I WAS CUT from the U.Va. Club Water Polo team. To the best of my knowledge, last year was the first time in the history of the University that the Water Polo team made cuts.
It was nice to make history, and in all due fairness, I had never swam competitively or played water polo before last year. But getting cut was almost as embarrassing as losing that first-year council election in the beginning of the year (ironically, to a member of the water polo team).
Being from New England, I knew no one coming into my first year. I took the wrong classes, made the wrong schedule, and got the wrong meal plan. I requested old dorms and was put in new dorms. I forgot to bring an iron, took too many clothes and didn't do my laundry often enough. I studied for 12 hours for the R.A. test and didn't make the cut.
But after all of this, I honestly can say that this past year was the most fun I've had in my life.
There are those who want their college experience to be perfect. They'll want to plan everything, make sure that they have anything that everyone told them to get, and to do exactly what everyone said they should do. Don't be one of these people. They're no fun to be around, and they end up missing out on what college is really about.
The only real advice I'll offer is this: Just have fun your first year.
You've probably already been hearing advice. The sources are endless: teachers, parents, friends, co-workers, relatives and orientation leaders. You probably won't see any of these people ever again, and they have no vested interest in your experience in college. So don't take what they have to say seriously.
There's no end to the "tips" and "pointer" these people will have for you. "Don't bring your car second semester, get the meal plan with the most plus dollars, dress nice in class, wake up at 8 o' clock every morning, be sure to memorize the middle names of all your professors..."
You can politely placate these people, or not so politely tell them to stick their advice "where the sun don't shine."
Most of the advice that people give isn't bad. Perhaps getting a certain meal plan would be better. Or maybe you should make a special effort to get to know your Faculty Advisor. But if you make all your decisions based on other people's advice, you won't learn anything for yourself.
And that's what college is all about. Being on your own, assuming new responsibility, and most importantly, learning from your experiences.
So don't feel bad if you don't follow every piece of advice you hear. The world won't end if you don't get to know all of your professors personally. The football team won't fall apart if you don't go to all the home games. And if you get trashed on a school night and miss a class the next day, you won't automatically fail the course.
Don't take advice because you're afraid of making mistakes. You'll learn from everything that you do wrong your first year. That's part of what makes first year great: You start learning things on your own.
So do what you feel like. If you're power-hungry and attention-starved, become a politico. If you have multiple body piercings and enough free time, become a UTS driver. If you have no common sense, join the College Republicans.
Or you can just be lazy, if that's what you want. Stay out every night. If your roommate's a jerk, break his stuff. Don't bring any appliances, and scrounge food off of your friends. Park your car wherever you want to, don't go to class, sleep in every morning, and don't feel the need to become "active in the University community."
The only way you will regret your first year is if you do what other people tell you to do. Any mistakes you make will be outweighed by the wisdom that you'll gain. Just do us all a favor, and don't try to share that wisdom with everyone else.
The people who take everyone's advice are the ones who get their for the following year in October only to have their roommates bail out in April.
If you were looking for step-by-step guidance for your first year, then you've read the wrong column. My words of wisdom: Do what you want to, do what you think is right, and let the little things take care of themselves. If you worry about the small details, then you'll miss out on all the fun stuff.
So welcome to the University of Virginia, and don't worry. You'll all be fine.
(Brian Cook is a Cavalier Daily associate editor. He can be reached at bcook@cavalierdaily.com.)
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