The First Three Weeks of Freshman Year: Lessons Learned

Hey fellow freshmen! As we wrap up our first few weeks at Harvard, here's a short list of lessons learned. Stay tuned for more as the school year progresses.

1) Taping Insomnia Cookies’ menu to our common room wall was a terrible idea (and not just for labor reasons).

One desperate Saturday, my suitemates and I had just come back home from yet another night of going on the “freshman prowl” (a.k.a. looking for any semblance of a party to get into). We convinced ourselves that we probably burned off enough many calories from walking all over campus that we could afford to split 12 Insomnia Cookies between the five of us. It was a good decision at the time, but since then, the take-out menu they gave us with our box of cookies has held a sacred place on our common room wall. We worship it on a daily basis, trying to find any and every reason to order a box of cookies after shoving our face with Cinnamon Toasters at Brain Break. I think I’ll stop here before this devolves into your typical freshman girl lamenting, “Freshman fifteen? I’m on the path to freshman fifty.”

2) Don’t celebrate prematurely about having an in-suite bathroom.

When I first got my housing assignment over the summer, I pulled the humble brag on my aunt by telling her that while I loved the “college essentials package” she’d gotten for me, I wouldn’t be needing the shower caddy bag because I had my own in-suite bathroom. Unfortunately, when she comes to visit in October, I’ll be way too embarrassed to even show her our bathroom. Let’s just say that the dark bath mat you see used to be a very nice shade of white, and we’ve run out of inventive ways to shove more trash into an overflowing bathroom wastebasket.

3) As tempting as it is to brand myself as a hipster music lover, the truth will eventually out itself.

My Gov 20 section is tomorrow morning, and I’ve purposely hidden my course pack inside the furthest depths of my closet. The only thing I want to do now is hang out with Taylor Swift, who can promise that our pain (hers because of attractive boys inducing teardrops on her guitar, mine because of chapters upon chapters of reading) will eventually be okay. Too bad I can’t do that though because I wanted to be the cool and hip roommate in our suite and told everyone in our first roommate Facebook group chat that I “only love alternative music, like Bon Iver and Passion Pit.”

4) Ambitious plans to go to the MAC every weekday morning only end in severe disappointment.

My parents raised their eyebrows the minute I came back from my FOP trip and announced I would be needing my sports bras and gym shorts (after a lifetime of inactivity) for “going to the gym." I had it all planned out—I would turn a new leaf in college and not spending all my free time re-watching "Girls" while stuffing myself with tortilla chips and mango salsa.

Much to everyone’s surprise, I did get up at 7 a.m. every morning during orientation week and beamed in  self-congratulation as I used the elliptical, albeit awkwardly, at the MAC. The habit quickly died when shopping week started, and that 7 a.m. alarm has progressively gotten later and later in increments of 15 minutes (it’s currently at 9, in case anyone is wondering).