Pre-orientation: Go to a meet and greet because your mom forced you. Get some free sunglasses. Meet one of your best friends to this day and apologize to your mom for being a whiny teenager because you actually had a good time.
Day 1: Try not to hyperventilate because there’s about a bajillion people here and you commuted here from campus while everyone was busy being roommates. Spy a familiar face in the crowd, a girl you sat next to in an info session. Befriend her and her roommate immediately. Spend the next few days in their dorm in Pralle running around writing on all the whiteboards on people’s doors.
Day 2. Or maybe 3. It all blends together: Play more icebreaker games than you thought were humanly possible in your orientation group. Eat more food in the cafeteria than you thought was humanly possible. Talk to more individuals than you can humanly remember.
Nearing the end (let’s be real, I actually can’t remember the days): Get on a bus to go to Segerstrom art center. Have absolutely no idea what to expect. Run around Segerstrom art center like a crazy person and gather around a group of people at the piano to have an impromptu version of something straight out of a musical where everyone starts singing and harmonizing to Don’t Stop Believing. On the way back, get on the bus. Start talking to a random stranger. Become best friends with stranger.
Even nearer to nearing the end: Go to the big party in Argyros Forum. Get served hors d’oeuvres on fancy little plates. Get a henna tattoo and immediately smudge the henna tattoo from dancing so it looks like a big ugly blob. Have people asking you what your henna tattoo is supposed to be throughout the night.
Orientation. You will laugh. You will cry (hopefully happy tears, but on a high-speed bullet train of events there’s really no guarantees). And it’s true what they say, in the cliche. This is the start of the best four years of your life so far. It’s more than a little weird for me to reflect on the week, nearly three years later, and realize yeah, it was that long ago. That long ago that I realized oh man I can eat unlimited food in the caf, I finally learned to pronounce Argyros, and made relationships that will last until we’re all in convalescent homes talking about that one time we went fountain hopping into the wee hours of the morning. So get ready guys, here’s to the next four years.
LilyAnne Rice
Comments