Newspapers / The Guilfordian (Greensboro, N.C.) / Sept. 2, 1994, edition 1 / Page 11
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September 2,1994 This Side of Paradise: First-Year Student for a Second Time Alison Amis Staff writer I can remember my last days in high school vividly as I look back. While I knew I would miss my friends, I couldn't wait to make the big leap into college life... suppos edly the best years of anyone's life. High school just wasn't ever the place for me, I thought, and the transition I would make had been long-awaited and much-antici pated. My college adventure would be especially exciting, I knew, because I was finally leav ing Texas, another place I never thought I belonged. In my college search, location was everything and my "require ments" were rigid: out of state (ex cept not in Oklahoma, mind you), pretty campus, big trees, moun- 5 MINUTE INTERVIEW GUILFORDIAN: Hello, Rich? GUILFORDIAN: Okay— RICH: Yes. RICH: Do you want to know why? GUILFORDIAN: This is the Guilfordian and GUILFORDIAN: No, Rich, it's a five minute we would like to ask you ten questions for a quick interview, interview feature set to appear in this week's is- RICH: Oh. Okay. sue. GUILFORDIAN: What's all this I hear about RICH: Okay, but I thought I already did an ar- a Senate-funded Guilford military? tide with you guys this week. RICH: Right now it's confidential but we are GUILFORDIAN: Yes, we know but this is a working on recruits, different section. Please keep your answers to GUILFORDIAN: Then do you support Guil one sentence. ford gays in the Guilford military? RICH: Um, okay. RICH: Yes, if anyone wanted to be in the GUILFORDIAN: Do you favor employer-man- Guilford military laughs to be a true fighting dated health care? Quaker, they should be given the chance. RICH: Yes, as opposed to a lack of health care. GUILFORDIAN: Rich, if you were an Ameri- GUILFORDIAN: Do you favor employer-man- can Gladiator, which Gladiator would you be? yyl Vl dated ice cream? RICH: Zap. * * A Lll RICH: Uh...Wait a second —This isn't going in GUILFORDIAN: If you were a car what kind 1 the paper is it? of car would you be? IvlCil JbWCll GUILFORDIAN: Please answer the question, RICH: Fast. —p—TT- Richard. GUILFORDIAN: Do you prefer Audrey ociiaic ri CMUCiu RICH: Um, well, No. Ido not favor employer- Hepburn or Jackie Kennedy? mandated ice cream...except on Thursdays. RICH: um, Michelle Pfeifer. GUILFORDIAN: Thursdays? GUILFORDIAN: Okay and finally, is it true RICH: Yes, sure yeah on Thursdays. that Senate currently has plans to dabble in the GUILFORDIAN: What flavor? occult this fall during weekly meetings? RICH: Well, Chocolate Fudge Brownie. RICH: Not during ice cream serving—or on GUILFORDIAN: What's your favorite color? Thursdays. RICH: Red. tains, fresh air, water. North Caro lina obviously fit this scenario and without giving serious thought to the fact that I'd never seen the col lege, much less ever been to North Carolina and knew no one, I said, "Sign me up." It was only into about the 15th hour of the long 19 hour haul that it finally occurred to me, What am I doing?! As the drive came to a close, however, and I caught my first glimpse of my new surround ings, I breathed a sigh of relief and was pleased, to say the least, that Guilford was as pretty as I thought it would be. They say that first impressions are everything. In this situation, however, I don't know that this is particularly true. Some of them are accurate, some aren't. My very first impression, beginning the first -features day of orientation, was how friendly everyone was. Everyone seemed to want to know each other and no one minded that you for got their name five minutes later. To me it seemed that most fresh men, excuse me, first-year stu dents, here shared similar views, similar tastes, and similar back grounds, despite the fact that we all come from different parts of the country. . . this was even over whelming at first. I always looked forward to going to a school with a lot of diversity and for a while, it looked like everyone was so di verse that we all looked exactly the same. After wrestling with this thought and talking with others, I came to the conclusion that diversity isn't a fashion statement; it's a state of mind. The more people I talk to in classes and on campus, the more I realize how much people aren't all the same here and how wrong that first impression was. I have also come to another con clusion, this one more startling to me than my first I actually miss Dallas, moreover, Texas. While it doesn't have North Carolina's mild climate or beauty, it has a culture of its own and a definite attitude. I find myself thinking about home especially on Sundays and days where the weather is dreary and I wonder what it was all those years that made me so adamant about leaving Texas. Why was I always so positive that it wasn't the place for me? When people ask me where I'm from, I actually like saying I'm from Dallas and hope that by some small chance they' ve Zfjt gtiilforfran been there just so that we can talk about it. TTiis early cm in the game, it is too hard for me to pass a judgment on Guilford; my feelings about it change everyday, and I constantly have to remind myself that I've only been here for a little over a week. Some days it's wonderful... I'll meet all kinds of great people, and I'll have a really good class. And then there will be days like yesterday when the glass jar of creamer falls off the window ledge splattering shards of glass every where not to mention all of that white powder. My roommate and I just had to laugh because after a not-so-great day like we had, of course the creamer would fall and of course the cafeteria would close at 6:15 instead of 7:00. 11
The Guilfordian (Greensboro, N.C.)
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Sept. 2, 1994, edition 1
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