New students should expect change this year
During the month of August, the Rice campus has a different air to it (and no, I am not referring to the insane humidity). With all of the new students experiencing Rice for the first time, there is an entirely new energy full of opportunity, excitement and enthusiasm. And while I love this energy as much as the next upperclassman, it is important for new students to recognize their new reality: that they are now college students, in charge of their own lives, time and academics. Their first semester at Rice will be a time of adjustment and an opportunity to learn, both inside and outside of the classroom. Lessons always resonate more when they are learned for an individual by himself, but there are a few pieces of advice that I wish I had had early on during my first semester at Rice.
I have made my fair share of mistakes and I have plenty of regrets, but I have also been through what new students are going through. If students finish this article remembering only one word, that word should be change. Change is the word, concept and theme that really encompasses the college experience, and for me, the ability to change is my favorite thing about being a college student.
The first element of change that new students may not be used to yet is the amount of independence that they have as college students. While it seems awesome right now, it is important to realize that this freedom is a double-edged sword. I am sure that new students have heard this a thousand times during O-Week, but it is important to reiterate: Students have so much freedom in college.
Parents will not drag them out of bed every morning and have breakfast ready (though the servery comes pretty close), there is no one to check up on their grades and, most importantly, there is no one else to put the blame on when they screw up. So new students should always remember to set an alarm, go to class (even if everyone else does not) and take the next semester to get acclimated to life at Rice. From this freedom stem new levels of change, because they are now the people who are in charge of their priorities and extracurricular activities (which some new students may not have been used to if they have particularly controlling parents).
The most significant thing that will change during students' college experiences is themselves. When they process out of the Sallyport on graduation day, they will not be the same people that they were when they first walked through it a week ago (I would be a bit concerned if they were). New students may have come in thinking they would be bioengineering pre-meds, but when they leave, they may be English majors, and that is totally fine.
That change is not just limited to academics; they will also grow and progress as people. When new students go back home to visit their friends and family for the first time, they may not notice changes as much, but give it a few more visits, and they will notice those differences in themselves and their high school friends. My parents have really struggled with my change from being a dependent child to an independent one: one who leaves when she wants to and who is not afraid to talk back, but they have learned to accept and respect my new independence. I wish I had recognized the impact that my changing personality would have on my family and friends back home. How weird would it be to not see someone that they love for a few months, and when they finally reunite, they seem as though they are a completely different person?
It is crucial that new students put their families' and friends' experiences into perspective as they go through these next four years, because students themselves are not the only ones affected. What is just as important to recognize is that their friends and family will always accept who they are, so new students should never fear the people that they may become and how others will react to that.
On that note, it is crucial that new students allow for change at levels that are comfortable. If new students have not taken a math class since junior year of high school, then they should not skip to honors calculus just yet. If they never partied in high school, then they do not need to go crazy next weekend at Martel College's "Don't Mess with Texas" party. This change should not be something abrupt, but rather a gradual process that they control. I encourage new students to go out and try new things, whether on a college-specific or campus-wide level. The more things they can expose themselves to, the better idea they will have of their interests and the type of person that they want to be.
At the end of the day, what matters most is that they are okay with the people that they are. New students should not let the concept of change keep them from new experiences. Now is the time for them to do what they always wanted to, because this is one of the few times in life when they can. However, students must be sure that they always keep their values in perspective, because one of the worst things that they can do is lose sight of who they are and the people that they want to be.
Now is the time to make mistakes, to pull an all-nighter for a class and to make new friends. We should all strive to leave Rice with a strong sense of accomplishment, not just because we worked our butts off for a degree from one of the best universities in the nation, but also because we processed through the Sallyport as better people than when we first walked in. Looking back now, the one thing that I would have told my freshman year self would have been: Learn to accept change, because it is inevitable.
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