Nobody fresher than my clique

Last year I devoted my first column of the school year to all of the incoming freshmen. I gave out advice focusing on how to get through the hell that is Welcome Week and tips on how to jumpstart the process of finding yourself.

This year I’m writing that column ... remixed.

College is about finding yourself, but in almost too many ways, you’ll find yourself based on relationships with others. The people that you realize you need to be around will shape you, and you will shape them.

During the next few weeks, you will most likely try and make conversation with anyone who looks like they won’t rape you. You’re eager, that’s good.

But there will end up being a myriad of people who don’t matter. Some friends you’ll dine with during the first few weeks solely to say that you didn’t eat your Wright chicken wrap alone. Ditch them if you don’t think they’re good for you.

You don’t need to be friends with everyone because not everyone wants to be friends with you. There will be people at this university who will perpetually stink-face you, even when you’re acting like Mother Teresa.

But then there will be friends that you realize you need — people you will want to be around when they aren’t just giving you alcohol.

Notice them, and work on those relationships. Work on meaningful relationships you think will help you become the person you want to be.

Work on the friends who make you want to break down your barriers and tell them your most embarrassing abroad stories the second you see them after summer vacation.

You might leave home, but that doesn’t mean you have to leave family. We’re too rooted in our familial relationships to go rogue. In college you choose your family and how they influence you.

Recognizing how much people influence you should teach you about how to interact with others as well. Care for your friends, and think about what you’re doing. Little actions like looking out for your drunken friend as opposed to hooking up with Ms. Butterface can really add up.

You’re all they have — and they’re all you have.

I’m not saying you should live your life for other people, but I am saying you should recognize the butterfly effect that you’re capable of. You can learn from your textbooks, but those are gone in the real world.

In the future, you are expected to talk to people and work with them in meaningful ways — so get your practice now.

Just give a thought every once in a while to how you’re affecting those around you.

Despite your best efforts you’ll need people there to clean the blood off the toilet when you drunkenly smash your nose on it. And you’ll cherish those people forever.

My grades, work or extra-curricular activities aren’t what I’m most proud of at this university — it’s the people I’ve chosen to be with and the effects we’ve had on one another.

So wrangle up your biddies, bros, posse, entourage, etc. and treat them right.

Make it a good one, IU.

­— sjostrow@indiana.edu
Follow columnist Sam Ostrowski on Twitter @ostrowski_s_j.