Carving out your college niche
Anne Marie Mattingly, News Editor
I am a Notre Dame cradle baby. My grandfather attended high school at ND in the 1920s and studied in the seminary until he was expelled for swimming in Saint Mary's lake. My parents are both 1975 graduates of the University's law school and were married in the Basilica in 1976. Furniture donated to the Holy Cross priests by my Maryland ancestors is now on display in the log chapel. I learned the fight song when I was five and taught it to my youngest brother when he was three; I was instructed in the rules of football in the first grade and attended my first game against Purdue in 1987. I don't think it's possible to have Notre Dame in one's family much more than I do.
When I arrived on campus to start my freshman year in the fall of 1997, it was with incredible expectations. I assumed that the fun and exciting football weekend atmosphere that I had experienced as a child would pervade every aspect of my Notre Dame experience. It was time to sit back and enjoy the ride that was my college career.
Little did I know it would not be that easy.
I had a less than delightful freshman year. None of my friends from high school had accompanied me to South Bend; few of them had ventured outside our home state of Ohio. My roommates were rarely home — Connie was in the band, Leanne ran track, and Joni was a swimmer. They had dinner with their respective organizations almost every night, while I ate alone nearly daily. When it was time for our first West Quad formal, each of my roommates found parties to attend in other students' rooms; I took my date to the dance as early as possible so that we would have somewhere to go. I almost didn't enroll at the beginning of spring semester, and even before classes started I knew that there were only 55 days until spring break. I considered transferring. As a painfully shy and quiet girl, finding my place at Notre Dame presented a formidable challenge.
But what it took me a year to learn is that finding one's place is the key to having a great time in college. For me, that place was at The Observer. For each of you, the members of the Notre Dame and Saint Mary's classes of 2004, it may be here at the paper (sign up — we're lots of fun, I promise!). It may be in student government, in ROTC, as part of a sports team or in a volunteer group. Notre Dame and Saint Mary's have hundreds of student organizations that sponsor an amazing number of events. Go to activities night (it's Tuesday, Aug. 29, from 7-9 p.m. in the Joyce Center Fieldhouse for Notre Dame; Wednesday, Aug. 30, at the same time in the Angela Athletic Facility for Saint Mary's), see what's available, find out what sparks your interest and get involved.
If you choose one or two campus organizations that interest you and invest yourself in them wholeheartedly, you will develop friendships across up to seven graduating classes that will last long after graduation. In the meantime your fellow students will become the source of lessons that cannot be learned from lectures or textbooks. Just a few examples of the invaluable tidbits I've learned from my fellow Observerites:
1. If you scout out Stonehenge for campus security and run through after deciding the coast is clear only to find that the guards were hiding in the bushes and are now chasing you on motorized scooters, one good place to hide is the women's bathroom in Nieuwland Science Hall.
2. Sometimes it's better to just sleep in. If you're not going to be conscious for anything the professor is saying anyway, you might as well be comfortable in bed.
3. It is possible to party every night during study days and still pass all your finals.
4. When you go to the office at 6 p.m. and leave just as the sun is coming up, a trip to Bibbler's pancake house is a must if you are to survive your 8:30 class (if you go, that is — see #2).
Perhaps the most important thing I've learned through my experiences at Notre Dame and The Observer is to make every decision so that I will not regret anything. If you choose to cut your organic chemistry study session short to drop by a friend's party, consider whether you'll be sorry about the choice when you get your report card. But just as importantly, if you're going to pass on an invitation to the Alumni Wake to stay home and study for the MCATs, make sure you're equally certain that the test is where you want to invest your time. Remember that college life is a balance between the academic and the social, and that spending too much time on either means you'll be missing something. Work hard, have fun and don't forget that your time here is limited. You owe it to yourself, your parents and your bank account to make the most of every minute.
The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.
Anne Marie Mattingly is a senior biology major at Notre Dame and four-year member of The Observer's staff. She is currently applying to medical schools. Anyone interested in working for The Observer's news department may contact her at 1-5323 or observer.obsnews.1@nd.edu.
All Viewpoint Stories for Saturday, August 19, 2000
