'Post' editor-in-chief welcomes freshmen to campus, offers advice
I don't say this to scare any freshman readers, but you're going to make a few mistakes your first semester at Ohio University. Really awesome, memorable, life-bending mistakes.
Deep breaths.
You are going to neglect sleep and pull all-nighters in Alden for your first exam. You are going to turn in a paper late and learn that professors are not as forgiving as your high school teachers. You are going to fail an assignment in one of your classes.
There's more.
You are going to pull an all-nighter because you were talking to a stranger for seven straight hours. You will turn in a paper late because you were a little too distracted watching Frozen with your new roommates. You will go to your professor's office to explain that failed assignment and learn that college professors value honesty and hard work as retribution, and that they want nothing but to see you succeed.
Ohio University is a pretty special place. You are not bruising your experience here by messing up a few times, as long as you make it up to this campus. It wants to see you succeed.
I cannot exactly guarantee what the "freshman experience" here will be for the class of 2020 (and wow, that feels weird to write). I only lived it once. Still, I learned enough about myself during my freshman year here that I have not repeated my mistakes — though I did move in with the friends I met then and still love the first "club" I joined: The Post.
I learned how to be incredibly creative with dining hall food and how to shower and put on make up in less than 10 minutes. I learned how to survive off little sleep and how to cut around Jeff Hill. When else would I have had the time to enjoy such life lessons?
I do not want to leave the impression that Ohio University is the college brochure ideal. Playing frisbee between class and reading classic novels while leaned up against a tree are myths '90s television shows taught you. You won't miss it much.
The things you experience here — the gritty things, the anxiety-inducing things, the awe-inspiring things — will teach you to call Athens "home." As a freshman, one will work harder than he or she ever has in academia. One will learn that the experiences that make college less than idyllic are the ones you'll remember most.
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As an incoming senior, I have spent the past three years learning how to eat a burrito while walking quickly across campus. I've learned how to find time to enjoy the hills and to sleep in. I have learned who my friends are and how incredible it can feel to succeed. I have learned to leave a little room for failure, too.
So, incoming freshmen: Welcome to Athens and to OU. You are going to love it here. Don't forget to learn a thing or two.
— Emma Ockerman is a senior studying journalism and editor-in-chief of The Post. Want to talk to her? Email her at eo300813@ohio.edu or tweet her at @eockerman.
