In college life, go on the offensive

I could write an all-encompassing column tracking my entire college experience and giving pointers to incoming freshman about the best bars to go to, apartment complexes to live in and classes to avoid.

But that would be about as cliché as a graduation column can get. Plus, the guy who wrote “My last words: 4 seconds at IU” already did that better than I ever could.

Instead, I want to get only a tad less cliché and narrow my discussion to the importance of one word: “Offense.”

And I don’t mean the type of offense our football team was so lacking this year at Memorial Stadium, or the moves creepers make at Sports with equal success as they try to pick up girls.

Rather, I mean the devil-may-care, take-the-bull-by-the-horns, carpe diem type of offensive attitude only a graduating senior can really appreciate when he or she realizes the past four years went by in a blink of an eye.

When I came to IU, I, like most incoming freshmen, was amazed at the number of opportunities open to me. Walking around the student activities fair that first month, looking at all the student groups and the amazing things they were doing, I wondered how I was going to do everything I wanted to do in just four years.

But soon enough, as with most new experiences, the novelty of being in a new place wore off. I settled in with a group of friends, found my niche with like-minded students in the campus’ libertarian club and resolved myself to a comfortable routine of classes, homework and partying on the weekends.

While I wasn’t the worst — I did do a lot of interesting things during my time at IU, such as run at Oregon’s famous Hayward Field with the IU track and field team, get into a war of words with columnist Mike Leonard in the editorial pages of the Bloomington Herald-Times and spearhead an IU Student Association committee tasked with reforming University policy — very few people graduate from college not wishing they had done more.

And this is why “offense” should be an important word to any college student, freshman or otherwise. Trust me, things aren’t just going to happen to you in college, or in life in general. If you want something, you need to go on the offensive. Spend all of your four years as if you were a freshman, embracing every opportunity while actively trying to stay outside your comfort zone.

If you feel as though tuition is too high or you’re tired of adjuncts teaching all of your classes, join the occupiers and raise hell at the IU Board of Trustees meeting.

Or, if you can’t stand the occupiers, start your own group and fight for your own causes. Trust me, so long as you aren’t lobbying for more Friday classes, you probably won’t be alone.

If you read the IDS and feel as though your perspective is not adequately reflected within the opinion pages, don’t bitch and complain. Apply to be on staff. I did, and everyone has been more than welcoming.

If there is a guy or girl in your class whom you are interested in but afraid to ask out, just do it. After all, “YOLO,” right?

If you have a paper you need to knock out but can’t seem to tear yourself away from Facebook and Twitter, give yourself a swift kick in the ass. When you graduate, you won’t regret the time you didn’t spend creeping on your friends’ pictures, but you will regret bombing an assignment.

On the other hand, if you have a test you need to study for and your friends are renting a boat on Lake Monroe, forget the test. Seriously. Boating on Lake Monroe is just about the most fun thing you can do during your time at IU.

And most importantly, don’t be afraid of people who are ideologically or culturally different from you. Engage them. Become friends with them. Their point of view might shock or sometimes offend you, but isn’t that what you go to college for? To be exposed to new ideas and ways of thinking? If you leave college having never once been offended, you should ask for your money back.

Next week, I will leave Bloomington for a new job, a new home and a new life. And, just as I was four years ago as a freshman in college, I’m sure I’ll be overwhelmed and excited by all the opportunities open to me.

But, to make sure I never fall into the same comfortable routine I often fell into here at IU, I bought myself a copy of “Pubs of Bloomington” to hang on my office wall.

When I stare at that poster, I hope I’ll be reminded of $2 Tuesdays at Kilroy’s, karaoke Thursdays at Bear’s and 15-cent Wednesdays at the Bluebird Nightclub. If I never forget those nights, neither will I forget time goes faster than you think and to always stay on the offensive.

­— nperrino@indiana.edu