OPINION MY VIEW Freshman Reset BY NEIL JAMES Opinion Editor For most incoming freshmen, college is a beacon of hope. High school students across the country are conditioned to believe that college is a utopian paradise. When 1 first signed into Senat Hall 1 half expected be given a condom, a can of beer, and bump in to my soul mate in some romantic comedy style mishap. Needless to say, my freshman year didn’t work out exactly as I had planned. I have plenty of regrets and would love to re-do my first year. Though, since I can’t do that, I feel that it is my duty to inform the incoming freshmen of my errors, so that they may learn from my mistakes and have a better experience. • Actually get to know your roommate. I can’t stress how important it is to get to know your roommate. My old room mate was a super-cool dude, but both of us were just really shy and never really got to know one another. In retro spect we actually had a lot in common, and could have been great friends. The year would have been a much better expe rience if we’d taken the time to become more then just ac quaintances. • Don’t over do Bruno’s. Seri ously, eating at Bruno’s too much will drain your meal plan with lightning speed. If you eat there everyday, you’ll be out of money by the end of October. • Exercise and Proper diet. Maintaining a proper diet and a healthy exercise routine is a fantastic way to deal with stress and fight the Freshmen Fifteen. Sure, the Junker Center can get really busy at night; but staying in shape should be high on any one’s list of priorities. Not sim ply because it’s healthy, but if you don’t hit the gym at least once a week, you’ll eventually out grow your pants. • Get involved. A great way to get sbtne fast friends is to get involved in one of the various MY VIEW Metamorphosis BY EVAN KOSER arts editor Three years. It’s been three years now since I broke out of my metaphorical chrysalis that was the high school experi ence. While it may seem cliche to use the caterpillar-to butterfly analogy, consider this question for a minute: is the final product, the butterfly, still the caterpillar he once was? That’s what I’ve been trying to figure out for three years. Am 1 free to fly in a gentle breeze now, or has my meta morphosis not taken place, let alone finished? In terms of changing, I haven’t stopped since I first set foot on this cam pus, and I don’t see my growth as a person coming to a halt any time soon. Though before I start ques tioning whether or not change can be a good thing, the best first step into this sort of self-re flection is to ask myself what I’ve learned and where I’ve grown. First and foremost, col lege has done more for my per sonal growth individually and responsibly than any amount of parental harassment through highs school. I’ve learned that an argument is nothing but a fight for fight’s sake. An open ear and attentive mind can take you further with anyone than money, looks, and false sympa thy ever will. Most importantly, responsibility is a DIY pro gram; until you understand that no one is going to hold your hand through college, then you’ll never find yourself able to step out the door into the real world. Through just the few things I’ve learned, I can revisit my prior analogy and mold it, just as college molds - not changes - someone into something al tered and unique, but ulti mately unscathed. I can safely say, even now entering my jun ior year, that who I was before college, and who I am after I Behrend clubs. Whether it’s Hall Council or Thon, pick a club and go with it. It’s pro vides food, friends and a pleas ant break from normality. • Come to college single. This is for those who already have a partner. Don’t outright dump them, but it’s worth giving your relationship some deep thought. You will change dur ing your collage experience, and it’s much easier to grow and develop when the only per son you have to worry about is yourself. • Don’t make finding a Partner your only goal. If you are sin gle and are dying for a relation ship, you freshmen year is not he time to worry about it. Focus on your grades, or else you won’t be in college long enough to stay with that special someone. • If you need help, get it! There is no shame in getting a tutor or going to office hours. Professors can’t help you if you don’t show interest. If you don’t get involved then you’ll just be a number, but if you show interest in your grades then they’ll feel more inclined to cut you some slack. • Be Patient. College is going to test you in a lot of ways and at some point your going to be ready to pull your hair out. Whether is floundering in a class or dealing with idiots, you’ll be ready to hit critical mass eventually. Just stay calm and keep your cool. Peo ple can be annoying and classes are not fun, but panick ing and throwing a fit won’t help the matter. Just take a break, step back and look for a new way to solve the problem. These are just a few things that I’d re-do, but we don’t go to college just to get a degree. By making mistakes we learn about who we are and who we want to be. Mistakes are actu ally the best learning tool that we have at our disposal, just don’t kill anybody and you should be fine. graduate are always going to j both be Evan Koser. As college i stands as a transition between I high school and the “real j world,” it becomes the chrysalis i many search for. College be- j comes the vessel for change. And what better place to seek I change and a new “identity” \ than in college? No one knows j who you are, where you come j from, or what your interests i are. Now, the beginning of i your freshmen year especially, j is the perfect time to reach | deep down inside and become I the person you’ve always | wanted to be. Some may criti- I cize me for advocating against | the “be yourself ” mentality, but I I rebute: are you not yourself if j you start to live out your deep- j est desire? To become some- i one you aren’t is to remain | yourself. Who you are wishes I to be something else -so in be- j coming that something, you do j nothing more than fulfill your i ultimate wish. A person can do ; his or herself the ultimate serv- I ice by acting independently, | taking others into considera- j tion, and putting effort into his j or her aspirations. lam still changing, still grow- | ing. Are who I was three years j ago and who I am now the j same Evan Koser? Yes and no. I For the most part, none of us I ever make the same mistake !' twice. Through trial and error, | we learn what works and what ; doesn’t. If there is anything a I first-year student should take | away from this article, it’s that I now is your chance. Now is the i time for all of you young cater- j pillars to gather the knowledge j you need to manifest your own j chrysalis through college. Now j is one of the only opportunities j of your entire lifetime to be- | come what you’ve aspired to j be, to overcome what you’ve al- j ways felt was an obstacle, or to j shape your life the way you j want it to be. Is the butterfly still the cater pillar he once was? /V \ V \ \LA •• \X\ \ A V* Pl * /MtMfeMeLposr <2 ZZ'O*} OUR VIEW Change comes bearing gifts As a staff, we want to make the Behrend Beacon the best newspaper that we can possibly create. We have made a lot of changes to the newspaper this year; many of these you may have noticed in this paper, many are yet to come. Why now? Why so suddenly? Change for the sake of change isn’t worth it, but we also feel that letting ourselves get stuck in the rut of what we’ve “always done” is just as bad. While we could have brought in these new chan-ges gradually, we instead chose to start off the year with a com plete redesign. We want to give you the best newspaper possi ble, right away. We are going to try a lot of things that have never been tried at this school, and the best time to start is right now. First, we have completely re designed the styles in the news paper. Fonts, titles, bylines - all intended to give you, the reader, an easier time navigat ing your news. More importantly, though, we The Behrend Beacon Penn State Eire, The Behrend College Reed Union Building 4701 College Drive, Erie PA 16563 Room 10H Telephone: (814)898-6488 Fax: (814)898-6019 :dltor-in-Chlef: Connor Satttey tiso6oopau.edu lanaglng editor: Jhrtsflne Newby iensos6Opau.edu Mb Editor: tarcus Yeagtey ittySol2opeu.edu are narrowing our focus on what Behrend students care about. We promise that every week we will have something that interests each student. Along these lines, we have added and will soon add many pages: pages designed for engi neers, scientists, businesspeo ple, and humanities majors; a page covering world and na tional news; a “Week in Photos” page, on page two this week; a page covering fraternity and sorority life; and many more. With each of these new pages, we will strive to keep the quality of the Beacon at the ut most highest. The most important change of this school year, however, is the fact that we are no longer content being the “student newspaper;” we instead intend to be a student media center which will provide video, pho tos, audio, networking, and on line information. To that end, we have scrapped our website com pletely, and rebuilt it; the effort has already drawn national at- tive Boan Business Managers: Bethany Long bjlso37Opsu.edu Michelle Quail mlqsooWpsu.edu Faculty Advisor: Kim Young kjylo@psu.edu itooNir.., News Editor: Mike 0. Wehrer mjss3B7@psu. edu Arts Editor: Evan Koser emksos6Opau. edu Opinion Editor: Neil James njpsoB3Opeu.edu Sport* Editors: Nick Blake npbso4lOpsu.edu Sean Annarelli smaslB9opeu.edu Photo Editor: Daniel J. Smith djss223opeu.edu Bulan*** Editors: Harmilee Cousin hxcso2oopau. edu Garrett Carson gmcso2lOpeu.edu ,%/ m vpiiok iu