When I was a freshman. . . I was "cool"

In the past four years at WPI the school has gone through major changes: the Fitness Center, Freeman Plaza, the renovations of Alden Hall and Higgins Labs, and the added dining room features in Morgan Commons, just to name a few. However, more than structural change, the change has been more of an internal change. I am not talking about WPI's latest array of presidents, but about my own internal change. Amazingly enough that change does not come from the massive amount of information that professors tried to cram into my brain, but from things I learned and experienced outside the classroom.

I remember opening my room door in Morgan with my set attitude of "I am cool." Even worse, I thought I knew who was cool and who wasn't. I spent a year-and-a-half trapped by attitude because I never took the time to look beyond my pre-conceptions. I wasted a year and a half being bored and criticizing every single detail about the school and some of the "characters" we had around here, always with my own "I am cool and know what cool is" type of attitude. Many were the nights of desperately trying to find something to do in this city which me and my friends dubbed "the capital of boredom." Since I was used to the warm weather of my country, parties ending at 5 a.m., and being able to get into bars at age 18. For a year-and-a-half I held onto everything I had been doing for my entire life, without ever trying new hobbies or setting aside my preconceptions.

And as I get reminiscent, I get the senior illness, saying "when I was a freshman..." but then I stop short and realize that I am better off telling you all about my last years at WPI, because even though my first year and a half was full of pleasant experiences, my closed-mindedness and small will to open myself to other people and new experiences deprived me of many meaningful ones.

It was not until I joined a fraternity and became more involved with several clubs on campus that I started to learn more about all there is to do at WPI (and Worcester) and more importantly, how much you can learn from other people, even if they are very different from you. I realized that the geek could be pretty interesting and that the smooth guy is just putting on an act. I also learned that taking five seconds to read a bulletin board pays off big time and that attending some of those "stupid" meetings the school always has could teach you a lot.

Although e-mail and irc can be wonderful tools, they will never replace the warm feeling of human interaction. It was not until I stopped being "cool" and opened up myself to other people that I started to have the greatest time of my entire WPI career. My junior and senior years at WPI have been full of rewarding experiences. By opening yourself and trying new attitudes towards other people and their hobbies you will also learn to make the most out of WPI. My freshman and a great deal of my sophomore years were wasted by learning only inside the classroom and trying to hold on to the same hobbies and preconceptions I had when I got here. Since then, I know better, and my clique from freshman year now includes a large variety of people very different from me. There were times when I made a complete utter fool of myself, which I could have prevented just by realizing how wrong my stereotypes about other people were. Looking back at all those embarrassing moments, I know that I have gained more than I have lost by just getting rid of that "cool" attitude I had.

For the same reason, I really try to find my face among those of class of '99 but I know I won't, because I have changed a lot. However, I have seen the face of that person I used to be several times and wonder how much time those people will waste before they realize it's cooler not to be "cool."