Way back in September, my freshman-year RA (holla holla, Rachel Fus!) sent me and all my former floormates a guide to having a highly productive and memorable senior year. I remember wanting to print out the whole thing and tack it to my wall because when something's not in my immediate vision, I tend to forget it exists. Lo and behold, my brain dispelled the information a week later and allowed the incredibly thoughtful message to be sucked into the black hole that is my Facebook inbox. Luckily, I was reminded this week by a friend of all the awesome and useful tips that Rachel had gone to great lengths to give us, her Brockway babies, and I anxiously went to retrieve them. Her advice spanned four categories: social, academic, prep for the future, and graduation. I'm going to copy-paste the "social" part here so I'll have it on hand to check things off of and hopefully anyone who stumbles upon this won't despair for the seemingly-void-of-culture-and-life that Syracuse is sometimes (unjustly!) misunderstood to be. I'm even willing to sacrifice a most sacred activity in my life -- deep, precious sleep -- to fulfill a majority of these before I graduate. That's dedication, ya'll.
"Take a minute to reflect on your last three years at SU. What were you thinking that first day when you walked in the B*Rock? What were expectations? What were goals? What have you loved doing?
You’ve got one year left, I’m betting you’ve still got a lot of things you want to accomplish. Keep track. Make a bucket list (if only because it’s SO much fun to check off those little boxes) Here are a few suggestions:
- • Go to Senior Sunday at Faegan’s (especially the last one)
- • Commit to finishing beer tour early in the year
- • Go to sh*t (you think you’ll have insane lecturers and free concerts and expensive art galleries at your fingertips next year – yeah, try again)
- • Eat the free apps at Rachel’s (in the Sheraton) at Friday Happy Hour
- • Learn the Alma Mater
- • Belt it out at Singers karaoke night
- • Ride the mechanical bull at Daisy Dukes
- • Go to the New York State fair for all the agriculture/livestock/funnel-cake kitschy good times you could ask for (also, rockin’ concerts!) http://www.nysfair.org/
- • Take advantage of the trips to lake placid and white water rafting, you’ll never be able to do them again for so cheap & with a chauffeur
- • Dinosaur BBQ (need I say more)
- • Go on the best Spring Break you can afford (unless you’re becoming a teacher, you’ll never get “spring break” again)
- • Document the year: take pictures, start a journal ( I have a collection of tickets and programs, etc spanning back to my first day. I doubt anyone is as much of a pack rat as me but I love looking back at it)
- • Play golf or tennis at Drumlins (it’s free!)
- • Eat some tasty food during Restaurant Week
- • Explore the Wescott neighborhood east of campus, Armory and Clinton Squares downtown, or, if it’s your thing, the Everson Museum of Art.
- •See the shows: Danceworks, A Capella After Hours, First Year Players
- host a party! (your friends will thank you)
- • Take a fun elective like Human Sex or Beer & Wine Appreciation
- • Show Jimmy Boeheim your appreciation
- • Go to a lacrosse game (we hold the record for most National Championships)
- • Play in the snow (snow football, sledding on dinging hall trays, build a snowman – odds are you won’t have this much snow in your front yard ever again)
- • There’s a whole big world outside of campus. See some of it:
- >Adirondacks: camp! get in touch with nature!
- >Cooperstown : Baseball Hall of Fame!!!!
- >Treman State Park: heard the phrase “Ithaca is Gorges”?
- >Seneca Falls: got a thing for the women’s suffrage movement?
- >Rochester: Garbage Plates, Kodak, Museum of Play
- >Niagara Falls (it’s a world wonder)
- >Greenlakes: teal green lake, amazing!
- >Stone Hill Quarry Art Park
- • Smell the roses in Thorden Park (just don’t do it after dark)
- • Get a slice at Cosmo’s when you’re heading home after the bars
- • Treat yourself to a leisurely brunch at the All-Night Eggplant (which is neither open all night nor does it serve eggplant, go figure) off Erie."
