So I wrote my first article and (giant shocker) it wasn’t about freshmen. Well here I am, a week late and ready to chat about freshmen. Can I tell you guys something? I am a junior. I get to say things like “back in my day,” or, “oh my gosh… oral comm,” and “when I was a freshman.” It pains me, and I feel terribly old. I feel as if the things I get to do are slipping away, and like this double-edged experience is slipping away from me, partly because I am a wildly nostalgic person, and partly because I have a younger sister who is a freshman this year. She is living in Livedalen (because the place breeds champions) and I can barely contain myself. I get to see her wear her lanyard around her neck like a derp. I am watching this “freshman experience” from a different perspective. Seeing it unfold makes me just want to go back and appreciate it. I have seen so much more of the whole process than I would have realized. I know her OL’s, I know how she feels like her homework is the number one stressor, and I know how she feels meeting new people. Her telling me about her day is the highlight of mine. I hear about the floor meeting, dorm drama, and events that are so new to her. Cobber expo? Great. Music on Olin hill? Thrilling. Soccer/football games? A blast. I introduce her to everyone I am with as my little sister, kind of forgetting she has her own identity, but one day I will be gone and my sister will be the reigning Henagin of the Cord. Can the campus handle the both of us? The answer is obviously.
My sister was so hesitant to come to Concordia. She had it in her head that Bethel or some other school was calling her name. I brought her up here one mild weekend and ever since then she was hooked. I saw that same moment pass before her eyes that hit mine when I visited—the idea that there were people who were better than at my high school. My sister had found a giant group of above-average intelligence that understands her humor and can be counted on to get things done for the greater good of the people in the world. Now don’t get me wrong, there is always something that rubs me wrong, but she hasn’t seen it yet. I miss that wide-eyed naiveté she has now.
I feel old. I ordered my Cobber ring yesterday, and I actually long for homecoming to see my friends that have already graduated. I have friends with adult jobs, who are applying for adult jobs and are being rejected for adult jobs. I have friends in other states, countries and time dimensions. I have married friends, and married-with-children friends. I have entire friend groups that have gone off to a different part of the world to save it. I feel so old and childish at the same time. I am looking forward to seeing my sister tear this place up with her own style, and I cannot wait to get my junior year rolling in my own old-person way.
Katelyn Henagin graduated from Pierz-Healy High School in 2010, and grew up in both Pierz and Worthington, Minnesota. She is graduating in 2014 with a Philosophy Major and a minor in Psychology. If you feel like talking to Katelyn, striking up a conversation about Harry Potter is always a good choice.
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