OSU freshmen pour into Ohio Stadium during Autumn Quarter 2010 Freshman Convocation. Credit: Lantern file photo
I am excited for this school year. College’s ever-changing landscape guarantees no year will be like the last. Perhaps the greatest change from year to year is the addition of a new class.
As a senior, I view freshmen as the mutable life-blood of the university. So I’d like to take this time to congratulate this freshmen class. Well done, you have made it to Ohio State, I am excited you choose this place and hope you will find yourself at home.
I’d encourage you to fully embrace this experience by exploring OSU: find interesting student groups, attend events, study abroad, meet with professors, wander buildings, browse the scores of library bookshelves, etc. OSU has a virtually limitless treasure trove of information and experiences just waiting for the students to take part.
The only difficulty in finding these things is that the extent of a student’s involvement falls squarely on their own shoulders. But if the cost of experience is to forsake timidity, making things uncomfortable, then it’s worth it. The world of OSU is ready to be grasped, as far as it depends on the individual.
Although this is my personal thought, I have found that I am not the only one to express it. In The Lantern’s first issue of the school year in 1913, one student wrote about the freshmen entering into a new stage of life, filled with whatever they pursue.
“To be a freshman is to stand before a magic casement, with all the fair and goodly world at his feet. So we are all watching you and our hand is on your shoulder. The road treads the delectable hills and there are many pleasant friends along the way,” wrote the student. “And yet so much depends, not on teacher or classmate or college, but on the freshman himself.”
Through the ages this university has been a bastion of camaraderie and friendship; each class would do themselves well to follow in their predecessors’ footsteps, welcoming every new face they see, especially freshmen.
“So here’s a hail to them and may they grow wise and great.”
