Being on The Stute has subtly switched my inner calendar from the 2021-2022 Fall Semester Schedule to The Stute Schedule. So while we still have a month left of school, knowing that this is my last article of the term has me thinking my finals are next week which, for the good of myself and all other students on this campus, is very much not the case.
Now, where to start for one last time… Well, hi everybody. It’s nice to see you again! The coolest thing to me will always be having people come up to me and saying “Hey, I read your article in The Stute!” More than the fact it’s both sweet and surprising to have people read my writing, it’s also a superb reminder that hey — people actually do read this so I should pay attention to what ramblings I’m putting from mind to keyboard to Google Docs to another shared Google Doc to Adobe InDesign to PDF to print newspaper. Try saying that fast five times.
I’ve been here in Hoboken for four months and let me (briefly) tell you all about how my life got flipped-turned upside down. First order of business: bagels. I cannot lie, my first couple of weeks here I vehemently argued the case that bagels were overrated and not even good. Partially I did so in jest because I thought it was hilarious how passionate people were about it all. But my, my, my how the tables have turned. Now if I’m out by Eighth and Wash anytime past 9 p.m., there is a very strong likelihood that I will be giving in to the magnetic pull of Bagels on the Hudson and saying hi to Millie while getting a bagel to accompany me on my walk back to my apartment. It’s gotten to the point where I had no choice but to do my research on bagel shops in my hometown and I am already sad at the thought of leaving good bagels behind.
Bagels are far from the only unlocked menu item, though; up next is caffeine. This one was a major game changer. I feel as if a whole new world has been unlocked to me. A world, of course, filled with sleeping for four hours a night and rereading the menu at Empire five times just to order the same thing. To some it might sound like an iteration of hell but in any case: Game. Changer. Never again will I be caught dozing off or skipping class altogether in order to catch up on missed hours of slumber! Now I have the power of bagels and caffeine on my side and so the adventure, or misadventure, depending on how you see it, has just begun.
Not everything has grown on me here though. Stairs are by far the most irksome thing I’ve encountered, and no — not all stairs are created equal. Some are narrow and steep and could quite possibly just be slides painted to look like stairs for the amount of times I’ve slipped. Others are n e v e r e n d i n g, such as my apartment’s stairs, particularly when coming home after a tough morning practice. It wouldn’t be fair to say all stairs are particularly horrible though. Some, like the ones in MPK, are portioned out neatly and spaced well enough that you can rest assured you’ll make it to the bottom exactly when you planned to, without any surprise shortcuts.
Past these observations, there are a couple things that I especially enjoy here. The first thing that comes to mind is finding my own spaces to enjoy on campus and around Hoboken, obviously so that I can avoid the aforementioned stairs leading back to my place. There are so many little nooks and crannies that I’ve been able to discover and study in, to the point where campus has become a huge treasure map in my mind with little “X” markings to denote my favorite niches, of which the list continues to grow as I continue to explore.
Which brings me to my last and final note of things I’ve enjoyed here, the people. Between The Stute, my teammates, and people I’ve met either by chance or through classes, I’ve greatly appreciated the jokes, lessons, and time spent together grocery shopping, doing laundry, drinking coffee, studying, and attending various club meetings for free food. I know for a fact that when I look back on my first semester in Hoboken, I’ll fondly remember bagel runs, the discovery of caffeine, and a little less so the dreadful stairs. I’ll smile at the memories made and the funny pictures taken, and I look forward to the rest of the school year.
Second-Year Freshman is an Opinion column used to explore the unique experiences of Sophomore students who studied remotely their freshman year during the coronavirus pandemic, and are now experiencing campus life for the first time during the 2021-2022 academic year.
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