For most of the student body, this week sees the return of familiar routines: moving back in, getting this semester’s books and sitting through the endless syllabi-readings otherwise known as, “syllabus week” or, “the first days of a new class. “
For everyone else, i.e.: the freshman, this is your first week of college. Between orientation, PEP meetings and new classes, you are likely feeling a bit of information-overload. Rest assured, that is normal.
You may have heard that college is a place where you can come to find yourself, develop as a person and flourish as a professional.
You may also have heard that these four years, give or take a few, will be some of the best of your life: a time to find a career you are passionate about, an academic pursuit that drives you or a time to find a group of friends you will cherish for life.
Your time here at UTM may very well be all of those things, or it may be none of them. These years are what you make of them. Fortune favors the bold, and this week presents a golden opportunity to put your best foot forward along your college path.
Sad to say, that may involve getting up before 10 a.m. or taking the occasional trip to the library. The life of a college student, if it is to be lived diligently, requires responsibility and dedication. Many of you are here because parents, organizations and governments have been generous to you. Do not squander the opportunity you have been afforded.
As for the grizzled veterans returning to the trenches of 8 a.m. biology labs and late-night, last-minute English papers, hats off to you. UTM would not be the institution that it is without your hard work and diligence. Many of your friends and classmates that started the journey with you turned back before this point, but you hung on.
It is likely that your first thought is to be annoyed with the hundreds of new, fresh-faced students struggling to adjust to their new surroundings, but perhaps that one freshman that can’t find their Skyhawk card in the cafeteria line or doesn’t know how to get to their classes just needs the charity of an older student to set them on the right track.
This campus can either be a community of learning or just another place to get your degree and get out, and the world has enough of those unattached places, don’t you think?
Regardless of whether you finish your degree or move on to something else, regardless of whether you are a senior who is active in every club and organization or whether you are a freshman who hasn’t yet found where they fit in yet on campus, we are glad to have you.
From all The Pacer staff, from the bottom of our hearts, welcome to UTM. We’re here to help.
