62 People Share The “Welcome To College” Moment That Hit Their Freshman Selves Like A Truck

Mine happened very quickly. It was the third day of orientation, and I got up early that morning. I decided, since I was up, I might as well go do something, and I left my dorm and wandered over to the nearby shopping street. I went to a Starbucks there and bought a cup of coffee. Then, I walked back to my dorm and sat down in one of the easy chairs in the common room, just sipping my coffee and waiting for everybody to get up. I don't know why, but this all struck me as really awesome. I guess, until then, I'd been used to having my life controlled by other things, my parents, school, etc. In a weird way, this was the first action I'd ever made completely on my own, and it was amazing. Still one of the happiest moments I can remember.

I went from being able to cruise through exams/coursework to actually having to pay attention and work hard.

Worst- freshman year, coming back late on a Sunday after visiting family, only to find all the dining halls closed. So I made bagel bites in my microwave alone (roommate went off to sleep with her SO) crying because I missed my mom and realized nobody would care for me the way she does.

Best- went to a house party that had a water slide, live music, mud pit, and alcohol abounding. Wrestled in the mud with my friends, and shot liquor into each other's mouths with mini squint guns. Epic dance battle commenced. Realized I would never be able to experience such reckless abandonment outside of college.

I had just moved in to my own apartment the summer before my freshman year, being a poor college student the best setup I could afford was an apartment sharing a room with two other girls. Time alone was scarce at night but once in a while the two other girls would go out and I would just hang out in the apartment with my SO...and by hang out I mean seize the opportunity to [be intimate] in peace. On one particular night my SO and I were in a bit of a rush because we didn't know how long my roommates would be gone and it slipped my mind to do the usual 'close the windows, lock the door' routine. Considerably loud and dirty [time] ensues, and just as I let out that last satisfied moan I hear my neighbors on both sides (I had one window on either side of my bedroom windows, both apartments occupied by 2-3 college guys) start to cheer and clap for me. For a solid minute I lay frozen like a deer in the headlights as they applauded my grand finale. My SO thought it was most hilarious thing that had ever happened, and I just wanted to go hide.

On my first day of school it had just turned to dusk. My friends (well really only hall mates at this point) were coming back from some freshman event. As we are walking along a man pops out of the bushes wrapped only in a yellow sheet. And yells, "my metamorphosis is complete! I am a beautiful butterfly!" He then threw the sheet on the ground reveling the fact that he was completely bare underneath and ran off into the night.

In college, I lived in a dorm as a freshman, but moved off campus into an apartment the next year. One night, after getting completely obliterated and blacking out, I walked back to my old dorm room, (I assume) thinking that was where I still lived, climbed up onto the top bunk of a bunkbed, and went to sleep. I woke up the next morning, trying to figure out what happened and why I wasn't in my own bed, looked around and saw a guy sitting at his computer. "Where am I?" I asked. He just turned and looked at me with a big smile on his face and said, "College, man. College.".

When I got the first bill.

It was a Saturday night, and I'd just been in my room for the most part, but around 2AM, one of my friends called me up and we decided to go hang out in another building.

I go downstairs and I see a body covered with a blanket, on the floor of the lobby. Right in front of the security desk (security guards need to check our ID before letting us into the dorms). There was also some kind of liquid mush staining the carpet near him. I'm a little freaked out at this point, thinking that someone had [passed away] and they had just covered the body... Nope, turns out the kid had stumbled into the lobby after a night of heavy drinking, then fell over and threw up while trying to give the guard his ID card. This had literally happened in the last 5 minutes, so the guard just threw a blanket over the kid while waiting for help.

I guess it was when I just left mid-day to hop on a train and go an hour away to another city for a BBQ. I mean, I had done that sort of thing before in HS, but I didn't have to tell anyone I was leaving, I just...walked to the station and was gone for the day. Complete, 100% freedom.

I was playing basketball for a D-1 school and I had come from a tiny high school. I was 6'4, and in HS that normally made me one of the 3 or 4 tallest guys on the court. Sometimes when we played small teams I was literally taller than the other teams center, even though I was a point.

Our first open run was in August. I was shorter than everyone on the team except two guys. The first time I took a ball to the basket it was like the sky closed up and slapped the ball right back into my face. I had a feeling my ceiling at that level might be limited at that point.

When a hundred students ran bare through campus the first time it rained that year. UCSC ftw!

The day I moved in was also the day that my mother had an emergency mastectomy for Stage IV triple negative breast cancer (2008). I was so scared, knew absolutely nobody, and my roommate was awful. My girlfriend was 100 miles away, and she was doubting the long-distance relationship would work.

Fast forward four years. I graduated, Mom is still fighting, and my girlfriend is now my fiancee, and we're getting married in May.

College went by so fast.

Probably the night we discovered that Pam + synthetic institutional carpet + duct tape = indoor slip n slide. Much awesome fun was had by all and a few socks were sacrificed in the process.

Even better was the campus policeman who told us to wait until he got off shift around 2AM. Turns out he's a tuba player in band and had a ton of valve oil. We had an exceptionally long corridor in the basement that was linoleum and much slipping and sliding occurred. We even had the foresight to put the WET signs down after we were done.

Also rolling down the hall to my dorm room because I was too drunk to stand up and walk. Ended up sleeping hunched over my lofted bed because I couldn't get in it.

All my chemistry 101 exam scores were between 60% and 80%. First time it happened I was shocked, second time time I knuckled down and really studied for the third exam, and the third exam I barely broke 80%. I was convinced I would have to retake it. I passed the class with a solid A. Feels good man.

I went to a small liberal arts college, needless to say the place was infested with children of rich people. We like to call those pseudo-hippies "trustafarians". I'm standing in the smoking area my first week of college, listening to a chick talk about how chicken nuggets give you cancer. While she was smoking an American Spirit. Welcome to hypocrisy.

I was setting up my dorm room and I realized I had no idea how to put my sheet on the twin bed. I kept trying and trying but it was simultaneously too short for the length of the bed and WAY too wide for the width.

Yeah, I was trying to put it on sideways, but I had to call home before I figured that out.

Failed my very first midterm because I tried to "study" like I did in High School.

My first semester at university, I was living on campus in a suite-style dorm. One of my suitemates decided she didn't like the university housing, and she wanted to move out into private residence. How did she get out of her housing contract with the university? She married a guy she'd known for two weeks. Apparently there was a loophole in the contract that made marriage a legitimate way to get out.

**TL;DR my suitemate married someone she'd known for two weeks for convenience. Hello crazy times.**

Mine wasnt some raging party or walking in on a roommates 3some or anything....it was more of a epiphany the second I was dropped off by the parents...

*Some critical background*: I came from a Military Boarding School....i went from extreme supervision to bliss (with a summer in between). My parents dropped me off at 11th and High st, right next to the Panera at the Ohio State University. We moved in already, just ate, and done all the admin type stuff you do on the first day....i was truly being released. I grew up in a relatively strict family. My parents lived in Chicago, so they were leaving for home right after this. I gave them the epic "last time being under your wing" hug. My mom cried with deep passion. Dad and I hugged, chatted, fist bumped and that was it.

Many, many times I have reflected on the feeling inside me as I sauntered the 1/8 to 1/4 mile to my dorm, by myself, for the first time. I MADE IT! THIS IS IT! THIS IS COLLEGE....*looking around* THESE ARE MY PEERS AND FUTURE FRIENDS...**THIS IS GONNA BE AWESOOMMMMEEEE!!!** It was a picturesque day, 70 to 75 degrees, no clouds, such vibrancy about and so much ahead of me. I've written a handful of songs and poems about it....I finally had the freedom I had been yearning and painstakingly sticking it out for....as i reflect on it now the smile on my face is as wide as can possibly stretch....so fond.

When I started college, we went to have a campingtrip as an introduction. Nobody of the 150 people knew each other, including me of course. The weather from the first day on was BAD. So bad that after the second day, only 5 of the 150 tents stood upright. But it was great. It was helping and be helped. We suddenly became a family because of our common enemy (the weather). We helped each other holding tents, finding lost stuff, and drinking. After two years all of us 150 are still like a big family.