Darts & Laurels: UF experience edition

The beads of sweat drop down your face and burn as they slide into your eye. You are finally done moving into your new dorm. Even though you are from Florida, you have never experienced heat like this. The dorm is nice...-ish. But it will do. Nothing can get you down. It’s your first week of college and you’re about to meet your roommate who you met on an online forum. As they knock on the door, you ask yourself, “How weird could they be?” You open the door and a strange saying is plastered across their shirt....

Darts and Laurels 

Welcome to college. We’d like to take the opportunity to introduce you to the highs and lows of the UF experience. Take it from us, some eldery Gators. Darts go to things we wish we could undo. Laurels go to the parts of college we can’t live without. 

First low of UF is parking. We said it once but we’ll say it again: The parking situation on this campus is not something to test. If you are new to campus, please understand, the parking officers are everywhere yet nowhere. You never see them, but they manage to give you a parking ticket every time. The first time you get a ticket, you will understand why this part of UF life is so dart-worthy. 

Swampy UF memes for top ten teens will make the UF experience all worthwhile. What’s the point of suffering through irritating professors, unresolved UF alerts and disappointing football game results if you can't share the experience with thousands of Gators via extremely specific memes. If you ever find yourself frustrated about a mishap “no one else understands,” go on to the page and you will realize you are not as alone as you think. If the page has a hole where your niche, meme-able experience should be, create your own meme and wait for the likes to pour in to reassure you. A laurel goes to the Facebook group and its admins for providing us with Internet content that has us laughing through the pain that is the college experience. 

With Fall comes the resurgence of those who stake out Turlington in hopes of you lending them your ear. Whether it is club recruiters, people handing out flyers, a preacher making their latest stop or Dennis, a dart goes to those who instill a bit of fear in us, as their enthusiasm is next level. The event promoters, student government representatives and club recruiters really want you to give them a chance, and you should. In the beginning everything will feel so new and exciting. Who knows what that piece of paper may hold? Your new community? An awesome new skill? Free food? By the third week of grabbing every piece of paper shoved in front of you, the truth will settle in: you don’t really need the fliers, and you’ve been late to every one of your classes because you’re too nice to say anything. 

The return of the Fall semester also means the return of RTS buses in great numbers. This also means our favorite bus drivers will be back on their routes, and a laurel goes to these hard-working men and women for doing all they can to get us to class on time. However, a dart goes to the RTS app for doing just the opposite. Somehow buses magically appear and disappear on this god-forsaken app and have us missing rides we didn’t even know existed. Better yet, the app loves to tell that a bus will be at your stop in 10 minutes, when it will really be there in five. So if you’re thinking of walking to that bus stop, run your little heart out and make sure you’re not late to that 8:30 a.m. lecture. 

First you become a part of it, then it becomes a part of you. We know we sound cheesy for saying this, but we want to give a laurel to the UF community. No matter where or when you find it, there is a group of people here who will validate you and empower your growth during your time here. There are many definitions of what it means to be a Gator and you can fit into any one of them, or make your own if you so choose. The UF community is constantly pushing the boundaries academically, socially, scientifically and physically. We cheer each other on and support each other during times of need. You’re a part of that now.