This 101 Week, make us Fulcrum staff proud—don’t repeat our mistakes!
Oh, frosh week. If you’re lucky, you’ll get out of it hangover-free, but hopefully you’ll also do a lot of learning. I know what you’re thinking—save that shit for the classroom! But truthfully, frosh week will give you the chance to learn about yourself, as well as the people you connect with. You’ll also probably—scratch that, definitely—learn some things the hard way. With this in mind, our fabulous Fulcrum staff have shared their lessons learned at frosh week. So as you gear up with water bottles of liquor and handfuls of fast food for your big week, make us proud—don’t repeat our mistakes!!
—Savannah Awde, Features Editor
To say that your first week on campus is busy would be an understatement—between a hectic move-in weekend, late nights, and a general lack of sleep, food, and water, you barely have time to breathe. I distinctly remember taking what was supposed to be a half-hour “power nap” on the first day, only to wake up 10 minutes before class with no idea where I was going. Moral of the story? Figure out where your classes are before the day of, so you aren’t running to a lecture in the basement of a building on the other end of campus.
—Graham Robertson, Managing Editor
Unfortunately, in my first frosh week (or “Fresher,” as they say in the UK where I was living) I learned the hard way not to drink too much on your first night out. Half a bottle of wine and 13 raspberry cocktails later, my shoes and the street were a nice bright pink hue. Luckily, I somehow made it home, but those shoes were gone for good. So remember to pace yourself!
—Jaclyn McRae-Sadik, Production Manager
During my first week of university, I gave up on remembering countless people’s names and started using identifiers like “dude” or “man.” Unfortunately for me, there was a guy in my residence who had decided to do the exact opposite. In every conversation he would walk up to me as if I was an old friend, while I would be wracking my brain trying to remember who he was. After an unnecessarily hard week of brief encounters with him, I finally remembered his name. In hindsight, I probably should have learned it properly the first time!
—Iain Sellers, Fulcrum Contributor
I remember when I did frosh week last year—it was a fun time with lots of partying and new friends. But I learned a few lessons, like not to stay out too late when you have an early morning class. Seriously, don’t do it unless you want to look like an extra from the set of Warm Bodies. Even now when I have an 8:30 a.m. class, I’m about to pass out even though I did nothing the night before. I guess life is always more tiring when you’re in university. At least for some of us it is.
—Shazara Khan, Fulcrum Contributor
Playing beer pong on frosh week should never be a regret—unless you’re playing with vodka, that is. No matter how confident you’re feeling, or how much you seem to be channelling Steph Curry when you shoot that ping pong ball, the hard alcohol in your cup will always catch up with you. So when your friend thinks it’s funny to empty a bottle of Smirnoff into the cups, just find something else to drink. Trust me, the custodial staff who have to clean vomit out of the stairwell—and your basic sense of human dignity—will thank you for it.
—Eric Davidson, Editor-in-Chief
