First years: this is the politically correct and gender neutral term for those of you who care: you’ve got four (maybe five, and hopefully not three) years at Whitman College starting two days ago.   Make the most of it and remember almost as much. You have a four-year hiatus between the conforming boredom of high school and the harsh reality of a full time working adult.   Enjoy.

Here’s why:

In the working world, no one likes you for you. Your boss won’t give you an extension on the TPS report because you’ve got personal problems. Whitman professors will be sympathetic at the very least. And if your TPS report sucks, then you’re fired and you have to survive on your dime, not your parents’. Based on my very limited experience of the corporate environment, rest assured that long nights at Penrose are nothing because nothing truly is at stake. You get a bad grade, fine, but at least your parents are shelling out thousands upon thousands for you to get bad grades.

In many cities, the police will arrest you for underage drinking. They will bust your house party if it’s too loud, and there’s an entire industry dedicated to and dependent on bringing the war on drugs to your home and every home in your neighborhood. Here at Whitman… not so much; you may not like your RA but at least appreciate and respect them.

If you haven’t noticed by now, Whitman’s a friendly place. Even after the first few weeks of school, after people have forgotten to maintain their best face, people here are generally still nicer than almost anywhere else I’ve visited. After all, didn’t a bunch of frat brothers wake up from their hangovers to help you move in? Haven’t Whitman students reported extremely high rates of happiness to esteemed publications ranking colleges?

After all, where are the bullies on campus? There aren’t many fights here. No outward aggression. Maybe a little passive aggression between fraternities and sororities, but little student-on-student crime. Everyone knows everyone, and if you feel overwhelmed right now, you’ll hear enough gossip to have a good idea of who everyone is at least.

So, take your time here because, believe it or not, it’s exactly fifteen weeks until the end of first semester. That’s fifteen weekends, or thirty days of unrestricted partying. Just thirty, well forty-five if you’ve got Thursdays and sixty if you include Wednesdays. Whitman, or more precisely the Whitman environment, is relatively generous with breaks and alcohol. OK, not really with alcohol but this is an environment dedicated to letting you grow as a person. That means no draconian punishments from your RA because Whitman wants you to learn, grow, and mature. Sure, whatever that means.

But, if nothing has changed since I was a freshman in Jewett, your RA will not confiscate unopened containers.   That’s unlike almost every other school I’ve heard of and there for a reason. Needless to say, enjoy your stay.