Don’t get addicted

Welcome back students, faculty and administration! Here's to another semester of long lectures, late night study sessions and dreadful exams. I'm not exaggerating, freshmen. Those movies paint a picture which allows you to envision college life filled with raging house parties, hot people and pool parties. When really, they only set you up for disappointment.

Okay, maybe there is fun to be had and occasionally there are ragers, but there's more to college than the social aspect. It's about growing up and learning how to do your laundry, but most importantly it's about finding yourself. It's going to be exciting, scary, confusing and probably the only acceptable time in your life that is okay for you to actually believe you're invincible. You will start papers the night before they're a due, make a lot of wrong decisions and lose your keys, more than once.  

Here's how it goes…

As I begin my final year at UW-La Crosse, I think back to a significant quote that reads, "The most common addiction in the world is the draw of comfort. It wrecks dreams and breaks people." I don't remember who wrote it or where I saw it. But I do know that it stuck with me. I've seen people stay comfortable, content with going through the motions, and I recognized the type of person they became as a result of staying in their comfort zone.  

I met my closest friends and roommates by letting go of any doubt I had and taking a chance. You know that lanyard that probably every upperclassman will make fun of you for wearing around your neck? (Please notice the article that is placed beside this one, and know that I'm not judging you, freshman.) That's how. I very nervously noticed three girls wearing the same Coate Hall lanyard that I wore and asked them if they wanted to hang out. I sound like a major creeper, but I had good intentions, I promise. If I wouldn't have stepped out of my comfort zone, then I probably would regret that moment I didn't approach them in the back of my mind wondering what could have been.

Beginning another year provides me the opportunity to share my experience and leave you with advice more valuable than any other guidance received—be fearless.  I advise you to take advantage of the freedom that college living offers. Find out what makes you happy, what you enjoy doing and hold nothing back. Your academic intelligence will be challenged and your integrity questioned, but the way you respond, in the mist of your own comfort or through your newfound audacity will make or break you.

Kelli Ponce, Editor In Chief