First Years: Yay or Nay?
By Lorelei Guzevicius
Staff Writer
One month has already passed in college, one month where the old students have had to roam the halls with the first years. However, cohabitation is not always easy. In the span of 31 days, some animosity amongst John Abbott students has sprouted, specifically towards the newcomers. New students have been heavily judged regarding their traffic cone like appearance in the hallways and for their increasing immaturity. Are these just misconceptions or generalized stereotypes? On their behalf, we must play the devil’s advocate and plead their case.
The change of atmosphere from a place of comfort to the unknown can often be daunting. In a school of over 6500 students crowding the halls, some can become overwhelmed and ultimately find their source of consolement in friends, even if this means causing a cluster in the halls. Or, another reason is they can just simply be the type of person who keeps their cart in the middle of grocery aisles. Sometimes, it can come down simply to bad habits and a hint of cluelessness.
However, the childlike attitude present in some can be due to an innate factor or an environmental influence. The use of the word “some” is pivotal. It is a misconception to believe that all first years are childlike and become increasingly more immature with each school year. It may seem this way only because they are the most obvious. Yet there are many first years that are not so easy to differentiate from the other years. They might not be wearing glasses and red and white striped shirts, but we would not be able to pick them apart from the crowd.The verdict? There is no unanimous decision concerning first years; however these characteristics are not exclusive nor inclusive to all first-year students. Each year, each demographic, there are the immature and mature, the clueless and the alert. This can evolve and change over the course of a person’s life, meaning college is a sample of what you’ll encounter on a daily basis. In other words, try not to judge the first years too badly, even if it can be testing at time.