Dear Penn Freshmen,

Dear Penn Freshmen,

I’ve been waiting for this moment! It seems like just yesterday that I was filled with a mixture of excitement and anxiety trying to learn as much as I could about Penn before I arrived. I soon found the “Dear Penn Freshmen” site and spent hours pouring over the letters trying to soak up all of the tidbits of advice, information, and insight. The truth is, you won’t have it all figured out before you arrive, likely not even before you graduate. That’s okay! Life, and especially college, is about the journey. Exploration, failure, experimentation, changes to plans, leaps of faith, and risks are all the name of the game. Though this once seemed immeasurably terrifying, it forced me to push my boundaries and grow in ways that I never thought were possible, and for that I couldn’t be more grateful. 

After Convocation freshman year, the night before the first day of classes, I left my dorm in the middle of the night and sat outside in the Quad, alone on an adirondack chair. I looked up at the stars and all around me, and smiling softly, I stretched up my arms and took some deep breaths. I knew I would look back on this moment – I was right– and I wanted to soak it up. “Whatever happens, happens,” I told myself, “you got this.” Do this, in any form. Pick a moment to mark as a benchmark before the chaos starts to measure all of your progress, growth, and how far you’ve come. 

At the beginning of sophomore year, I sat in Commons with my friends catching up after our summers apart. My friend asked us all what our intentions were for the semester. It wasn’t something I usually did, but I humored her: Being present in the moment. What seemed like a silly, inconsequential exercise at the time quickly turned into a mantra I lived by, whether things were difficult or I was having the time of my life. Being present in the moment helped me appreciate all the ups and downs of my journey at Penn. Now looking back on my four years, I can confidently say I have no regrets. Sure, there are endless things I didn’t get the chance to do, but that’s not the point; it’s impossible to do everything. The point is that I’ve taken full advantage of what Penn has to offer and soaked up every moment. I feel a sense of peace when I look back on my time. Since then, I’ve collected a list of other mantras that have helped keep me grounded and aligned with my values and goals.

Embrace the chaos. College is crazy. Penn is crazy. There’s work to do, people to see, parties to go to, classes to take, choices to make. There’s no avoiding that, so just accept it. Life might not be calm, but it certainly won’t be boring. Don’t forget to carve out time for yourself to relax and reset. Rest is just as important as socializing and productivity. 

Solutions will emerge. I tend to get swept up in anxiety and worries. There will likely be moments when you feel the same, college can be inherently stressful at times. Maybe you fail an exam. Maybe you don’t make it onto a team you auditioned or tried out for. Maybe you don’t know who to live with. Maybe you can’t find an internship or job. Maybe you feel lost in general. Solutions will emerge. They might not emerge right away. They might seem impossible to even fathom. But they will. You will be okay. You might even be better for it. Things might actually be falling into place. You’ll look back and wish you didn’t stress so much about it. 

Seek discomfort. Being inside your comfort zone is nice, it’s certainly easy, but it won’t get you anywhere. Push your boundaries constantly. Challenge your limits. You’ll surprise yourself. Some of my best memories and experiences have come from this. It can be small: I joined an IM softball league with my friends senior spring. It can be large: I skydived over the Great Barrier Reef while completing a summer internship in Sydney, Australia through Penn Abroad’s GRIP (I’m scared of heights). It can be anywhere in between. Growth is growth. You can do hard things, and you’ll be better for it. 

Show up. The secret to life is showing up. It matters, big time. Go to class. Go to your friends’ performances, games, and concerts. Be there for someone who’s going through a tough time. Walk down to Penn Park for Club Lacrosse practice even if it’s freezing out. Showing up also means giving it your all. Listen attentively. Work hard. Don’t half-ass life. Don’t take shortcuts. You get out what you put in. If you show up for others, they’ll show up for you. That’s magical.

Do you. Penn can be pre-professional. Penn can have a crazy social scene. I’m sure you’ve heard these stereotypes. The key is you don’t have to hop into that stream and get swept away by the current. Forge your own path and stay true to yourself and what you love. I have been thrilled to take all of my classes every semester (shoutout Cognitive Science), and my friends are often shocked. Sure, there are some requirements you have to knock out, although I actually ended up loving Intro to Earth Systems Science, but try to reflect on what you truly love or are curious about and study that. I never applied or interviewed for a Wharton club, or any pre-professional club for that matter, and I took a Life Sciences Consulting job post-grad. I’m part of wildly different social circles (both a sorority and the Ski Team) which sometimes confuses people. Who cares. You do not have to do what other people are doing. You should do what you love and care about deep in your heart. It’s okay if your path looks and feels different. It might feel hard to fight the current, it certainly has for me, but it’s been well worth it in the end.

These are just my mantras, you’ll find yours too. It might take time, and that’s okay, you’re a work in progress. Jot them down somewhere, and smile as the list grows longer and you grow stronger. Take a deep breath, don’t blink, and have the time of your life!

Anonymous

Dear Freshman Year Sarah, 

As a senior who is one month away from graduating, there's a lot that I've learned in these last four years at Penn. Yes, I've learned from my lectures, exams, etc., but that's not what has taught me the most. Ultimately, the people I met along the way helped me grow and taught me lessons about loyalty, trust, and what it means to be a friend. If I could go back in time and give you advice, this is what I would tell you: 

1. Never stray from your morals. 

The thing that I am most proud of in my four years at Penn is that I never once strayed from my morals and who I am as a person. People will try to push you from your value system and convince you that your gut instincts are wrong. But let me tell you this - the people doing that are not your friends, and 99% of the time, your gut instincts are right. During my junior year, I had a conflict with a friend where she said something that crossed a moral boundary. Everyone else watched silently as I stood up for myself and what I believed was right. Now, I'm no longer friends with that girl, and honestly I'm not friends with the silent bystanders either. Because that's the thing about morals - you learn a lot about someone by what they’re willing to compromise. If staying true to your values costs you a friend, then maybe that friendship wasn’t meant to last.

2. Always put 100% into your relationships, but also know when you're being taken for granted. 

I am someone who puts their everything into every single relationship. And while that is beautiful, it has also hurt me time and time again. So many people take that effort for granted, and I often give 100% while others give 20%. But here's the thing - although it hurts feeling like someone else doesn't care about you, when you finally find someone who gives back just as much as you do, it’s one of the best feelings in the world. Ultimately, I found my best friends because I put 100% into them, and they gave me 100% of their care and effort. And the relationships where they only gave me 20%? Well, I stopped giving them my 100% because they didn't deserve it! A person only has so much energy to give, so if you give it to someone, give it to the people who invest 100% into you, too. 

3. FOMO is overrated. 

I have never been the type of person who loved to party 24/7. Don't get me wrong; I love going out and having fun with friends, but constantly partying has never been something I was interested in. Being on a college campus makes it seem like any night you spend watching a movie in bed or studying at the library is a wasted social opportunity. You'll see pictures and videos on social media of people at different clubs, frat parties, and bars, and the FOMO will hit. But let me tell you - that night I stayed in and watched an entire season of Friends? It protected my peace and gave me balance, and those nights out became so much more fun than they would have been otherwise. Never feel the need to go out just because that's what everyone else is doing - if you want to stay home, eat ice cream in bed, and watch a movie, that's what you should do!

4. Study abroad - you'll make memories for life and learn who your true friends are. 

Studying abroad was a time of renewal. A new home, a new routine, and lots of new opportunities. I had so many trips that were the adventures of a lifetime, and I made new friends who are now friends for life. The people who also studied abroad became travel buddies, and now we’re forever bonded by memories, adventures, and laughs. But studying abroad also meant that some friends back home moved on without me, and they completely shut me off from their lives because I wasn't on campus last semester. At first, coming back in the fall of senior year was difficult because I didn't understand how leaving campus for one semester meant so many people no longer had the energy to devote to our friendship. But looking back, I realized that these people were never true friends in the first place. Real friends don't just forget about you because you decided to study abroad for the semester. Real friendships are the ones where we reunited after a semester and summer apart, and it was like no time had passed. Those are the friendships worth investing in.

5. Not all friendships are for life. But the best ones are. 

I've heard the saying, "Friends are here for a reason, a season, or a lifetime." It wasn't until college that I truly understood what this meant. I've always been the type to enter every relationship expecting it to be one for life. So when some friendships died off, I was absolutely devastated. But here's the thing - you learn so much from every single relationship. If people are only in your life for 3 years or even just 3 months, it doesn't mean the friendship was a waste of time. You grew as a person and learned what you need out of a friend. Maybe you grew apart, and maybe you'll grow together again. Or maybe you won't. But right now, it's okay that it ended. And sometimes, friends are here for a reason. Because of a former friend, I met my boyfriend and have never been happier. Even though I'm no longer friends with the person who led me to him, I will still always appreciate that he came out of our friendship. But never forget - there are still friends who are there for a lifetime. You met your best friends at Penn, and those people will be at your wedding, your baby shower, your kid's birthday parties, etc. They are the ones who will be there for all of the exciting things along the way, which is something to be eternally grateful for. 

Friendship is a roller coaster. It has really high highs and low lows, but what matters is the people who stick by you through it all. The people who buckle up knowing that there may be some twists and turns along the way, but they promise to never let go of your hand. It's easy to be friends with someone through the good times - it's easy to laugh and smile when everything is going well. But the real friends are the ones who pick you up at your lowest, who never give up on you, who are always there to hold your hand and tell you everything is going to be okay. People will get off halfway through the ride, and that's okay. It doesn't mean it won't hurt, but it will be okay. 

And now, as we're reaching the end of our ride here at Penn, that roller coaster becomes even more exciting because you get to make new friends and continue making memories with the Penn people you love the most! Soak up as much as you can in these next four years, and most of all, enjoy the ride <3

Love, 

Senior Year Sarah 

Dear Freshman Aneesa,

You did it. All those hours in the library, endless extracurricular activities, intensive SAT classes, late night field hockey and softball games, tedious lab sessions, awkward COVID zoom classes, and many, many tears finally paid off. Congratulations! Now what? Now, the start of the next chapter in your life begins.

A new beginning, a fresh start, a second chance– don’t blow it! They say college is the best four years of your life. A heavy loaded statement with lots of expectations to not mess it up. But, first, take a deep breath. You’ve accomplished what seemed like the impossible — you got into your dream school: Penn. I know you’re sitting there, trying to act like you’ve got it all figured out, but the truth is, you don’t. And that’s more than okay. 

When you first stepped onto campus, strolled down Locust, and unpacked your bags in your little KCECH room, you thought you had a plan. You had grown up thinking you’d follow the path so many in your family had taken: med school. It felt like the obvious choice, the “safe” one. But pretty quickly — somewhere between realizing that your fear of blood wasn’t going anywhere, and recognizing that your heart couldn’t handle seeing people sick every day — you started to understand that just because a path is well-worn doesn’t mean it’s the one you should walk.

As the most indecisive person in the world, that was only the beginning of changing your mind. You hopped from Environmental Studies to Economics to finally landing on PPE — a major that the high school version of you (who loved STEM and thought she’d never leave it) couldn’t have ever imagined. But here’s the thing: it fit. And it fit because you let yourself grow into who you are, not who you thought you were supposed to be.

Speaking of "supposed to be," you’re going to meet a lot of people who talk like they’ve got it all figured out. Some of them will insist you need to have your career locked down, your resume perfected, your coffee chat schedule locked and loaded, and your first job offer lined up by the end of your Sophomore year. 

But here’s a secret: you don’t need to have your future planned out before NSO is even over. And no, you do not need to know how to build a DCF model your freshman fall, despite what the finance bros in your writing seminar are telling you. And, I know it’s easier said than done. Imposter Syndrome is real, and it doesn’t exactly disappear right away. Especially during Sophomore year, when recruiting season hit and the info sessions started piling up. I remember sitting at those events feeling like I had snuck into the wrong room — surrounded by people who all seemed to speak fluent “finance” while I was still flipping through Investopedia. But to be completely honest, everyone was just as confused as you were– and spoiler alert: it all works out. You figure it out, one coffee chat, career center visit, and practice interview at a time. It’s easy to get lost in the speed of the pre-professional culture at Penn, but just remember, everyone’s timeline and goals are different, and rushing to keep up with someone else’s race only makes you miss the beauty of your own. 

And wow, will there be beauty. Even in the strangest of times — like when your college journey starts mid-pandemic, behind a mask, with weekly COVID tests — you’ll find reasons to be grateful. After so much time isolated at the end of high school, every moment on campus will feel like a gift. You’ll appreciate the simple things: a kiwi frozen yogurt run, a long walk down Locust, SABSing in front of ARCH, “studying” in Huntsman GSR G61 (if you know, you know), a run along the Schuylkill River Trail, and even a class discussion you once would’ve dreaded. 

Aside from academics, friendships will surprise you the most. Some people you meet on day one will stay in your life, and others will fade away — and both are okay. You’ll outgrow some connections and hold tight to others, and you'll realize that real friendship isn’t about who you met first, or who you roomed with, but about who makes you feel like the best version of yourself. You’ll learn to let go of friendships that hurt more than help, and you’ll make space for the ones that challenge you to grow. And some of the most unexpected, but most special and invaluable, friendships may arise from late-night problem sets (shoutout to ECON 2100), study sessions that turned into deep life talks, and learning to lean on people who were going through the same ups and downs I was. Those relationships helped me push myself and made even the stressful parts of college a lot more bearable.

You’ll also grow in ways that your freshman self couldn’t imagine. You’ll learn how to cook without burning the kitchen down (mostly) and take SEPTA all by yourself without getting lost! You’ll find the confidence to speak up, confront problems, and admit when you don’t know the answer. You’ll pick up hobbies that you truly enjoy like running, crocheting, baking, and falling in love with Philly. You'll even start planning your future like an actual adult– signing a lease in a brand new city and planning for the next big chapter. You’ll be someone who, in the end, isn’t afraid of change — but excited by it.

And the best part? You’ll have so much to be grateful for: the friends who make you feel endlessly loved and seen, the roommates who turn into family, the professors and classes that challenge you, the family that cheers you on no matter what, and the countless little moments that make college more than just a list of courses and credits.

And yes, you’ll make many, many mistakes, you’ll change your mind, but you’ll be more than okay. In fact, you’ll be proud– proud of how far you’ve come academically, socially, professionally, and emotionally. And, things will work out. Not always the way you planned, and not always the way you hoped — but in ways that will help you grow into the person you were meant to be. 

So, if I could offer any advice, it would be this: take your time figuring things out, and don’t measure your success by how fast it seems like other people are “figuring it out.” Find spaces where you can learn and grow, surround yourself with people who make you feel comfortable being yourself, and make time to enjoy the ride — both on campus and beyond. Philly, your friends, and a lot of self-discovery are all waiting for you, and you’re in for the most exhilarating, jarring, surprising, crazy rollercoaster of your life, so buckle up and enjoy the ride!

All my love <3,

Aneesa S. 

Dear 2021 Amishi,

Never in your wildest dreams did you imagine that you would end up at Penn – yet here you are. Before I give you a glimpse of your next four years here, let me preface by saying this: we are no longer the same person (don’t worry, it’s for the better). High school was manageable – a bit challenging at times. College, on the other hand, will give you the reality check you didn’t know you needed. 

Remember when you used to wake up at 5am to skate before school and end your day past midnight juggling homework and extracurriculars? Your first real challenge at Penn won’t be the workload; it will be waking up for your 8:30am chemistry seminar. This isn’t about Mom not being there to make sure you are up. It’s about learning to establish a routine. You thrive on structure and order, so lean into that and start creating a schedule from day one. Before you can even finish saying “It’s UPenn, not Penn State” (get used to it) you will find yourself spending more time in lab than in lecture, pushing through all nighters, pulling overnight shifts, and trying to patch together some semblance of a social life. That tiny planner you just bought? It doesn’t stand a chance. Download Google Calendar before you move in. Without a routine, you will fall victim to the unforgiving nature of time.

Your fear of failure will drive you straight into the arms of procrastination, and it will ultimately be your worst enemy over the next four years. Sure, you perform well under pressure, but that is no excuse to hit “Submit” at 11:58pm. Once your schedule fills up, you will learn the hard way that this is not a sustainable habit. Use your class time wisely. If you are not taking notes in lecture, start writing that essay you have been avoiding for another class. You know yourself better than anyone else – you know you will find excuses to put it off until later, so might as well do it now while you are stuck in that chair for the next 90 minutes anyway. That fear of failure will only manifest if you let it. Start viewing potential failures for what they really are: opportunities for success.

I hate to break it to you, but you are not going to meet your best friends the moment you set foot on campus. Not every friendship will last all four years, but every person who enters your life will teach you something. Don’t take it personally when things don’t work out, and don’t let it stop you from opening up to someone new. Through it all, you can always count on yourself. You will start to hate silence because it gives your thoughts too much room to spiral, so you’ll rarely be seen without headphones to block it all out. One day, you will find yourself sitting on a bench by the Schuylkill River in the middle of a midnight run, headphones off, enjoying the quiet. Music is a temporary fix, and people come and go. Eventually, you’ll see that the hard moments are what shape the strongest parts of you.

You have big dreams, Amishi, and the only person that will get in your way is yourself. Every time you will be knocked down (it will happen often), it is just another opportunity to come back stronger. Now go listen to Danza Kuduro – it will be the soundtrack to your next four. 

Good luck, maverick.

With Love,

Your second-biggest cheerleader,

Amishi M.

Dear Penn Freshmen, 

Time is a funny thing. I feel like I’ve evolved so much over these four years, but I also feel like nothing much has changed. I’m still just me, and as long as you keep sight of yourself through the trials and tribulations of academic and personal challenges, you’ll always be you. My biggest recommendation is to just follow your own path. 

You’re going to meet what feels like a million people who seem to have their lives completely paved out the second they step on campus. 1. They probably don’t actually. We talk about our biggest successes and hide what we consider our biggest failures. 2. No path is the correct path. Do what makes you happy and now what makes someone else seem happy. 3. Try, and I mean really try, because it might seem hard not to, but try not to compare yourself to those around you. They say comparison is the thief of joy, and well, they’re right. The biggest lesson I learned, and am still learning, is to be grateful for what you have and what’s coming instead of wishing you were living someone else’s life. 

When I was a tiny little freshman like you, I thought I knew exactly what my four years would look like. I thought I would become a biomedical engineer until I almost failed Math 114 (I think now it’s called Math 1410). Then I thought I might switch to pre-med like my brother did. Now I’m studying data science and design, and I want to go into media entertainment law. Who knows if that’s even what’s going to happen? What matters isn’t how many times I changed my mind on my major, how many horrible (and also great!) grades I received, or how many times I didn’t know what my future would hold (I still don’t). What matters in the end is that I always kept an open mind.

A characteristic I find extremely useful that you could adopt then is to be adaptable. What feels like rejection at what point will probably actually open doors for you in other ways. Be open to trying new things: discovering new joys like the BYO culture in Philly, Clark Park farmer market, Dollar Taco at Loco Pez, and more. What you gain most from Penn outside of your diploma, I suppose, is the experiences of growing and becoming what some people call: an adult. Achieving independence is a rollercoaster of adapting and being open-minded, and you just have to let the little things guide what ultimately is your path. You got this, and I mean that. 

With love, 

Annabel S. 

Dear freshman self,

First off, congratulations. Penn is a privilege- you have no idea the true magnitude of opportunities now at your fingertips. Soak it in, and remember to always say thank you.

When I sat down to write this, I wasn’t entirely sure of what to say. It’s hard to condense the last 4 years into a single letter. So, as I think back through the highest highs and lowest lows, I’ll start here- know when to say yes, and when to say no.

Saying yes will bring you some of the best people and memories you’ll have. The first day of classes at Penn, you’ll say yes to sitting in the far corner of a DRL classroom, and you’ll meet your future best friend and roommate. You’ll try out some activities and clubs you fell out of love with in high school, and you’ll learn to love them again. Saying yes to attending guest speaker seminars, and applying to a submat, will bring more perspective and focus to your career goals than you thought possible. You definitely weren’t sure about going through sorority recruitment, but it brought you the most supportive people you could have ever hoped to meet. Say yes to a night downtown, say yes to board game themed parties, say yes to dinners with friends. 

The next 4 years will also teach you when to say no. Penn will throw a lot of things your way, good and bad- learn balance, and don’t feel bad about prioritizing what matters. Internship and job recruiting will be hard, and losing friends will be hard. Tripping down the Quad stairs will teach you that the floor is in fact hard (trust). You’ll switch your major a few times (approximately 20), and it takes over a year for you to stop feeling like you’re always behind. Go to those extra office hours, do what you came to Penn for. As you learn to stay on top of the work, that feeling will eventually fade. You’ll find people who’ll bring you coffee in engineering quad instead of leaving you behind during those rougher weeks, don’t worry. Once you get through those first few classes, you’ll realize how much you love the path you’ve chosen. 

Some final advice:

Don’t forget to call home. Mom and dad’s advice and support will get you through CIS 1600, but more importantly (maybe), they’ll help you figure out how to balance your ambition, goals, and realism. They’re the best.

Pop the Penn bubble every now and then. Try that workout class in Rittenhouse, make reservations during Restaurant Week, and explore cafes (you said you would in your college essay, and- spoiler alert- you’ll go to over 50 in a year). Be comfortable being alone sometimes, and soak in Philadelphia- you don’t know it yet, but the city will grow on you in unimaginable ways (go birds). Go out with friends downtown and around campus, and savor those 2am moments. And please, please find U-Town earlier on.

Your calendar? Use it. Religiously. You’ll accidentally double book yourself, miss a meeting here or there, and last-minute race across campus to meet friends for a coffee after class. Rely on writing things down and take them out of your head. And, at the same time, relish in the gaps in your schedule. It might not feel like you’re doing enough sometimes, but I promise you are- don’t join clubs or agree to things just because you want to have things going on. Choose what makes you happy (and trust me, you’ll find lots of those things).

I can’t wait for you to experience Penn. And I’m so so proud of you.

Love,

Anonymous

Dear Freshman Molly,

Every failed CIS autograder test.
All the assignment grades you won’t even remember.

Every December 23rd spent hunched over notes for your last final.
All the Christmas spirit you missed while everyone else was celebrating.

Every torturous point lost on the PHYS 1500 exam.
All those extra hours of studying that barely moved your grade.

Every minute you lay awake, replaying that one BEPP 2500 exam question you couldn’t crack.
All the sleep you sacrificed that never came back.

Every tear you shed over Java bugs you couldn’t fix.
All the moments you lost to frustration and anxiety.

Every “Sorry, I can’t make it” text because you thought you had to study.
All the friends you never got to know.

Every night you went home because the homesickness felt too heavy.
All the late-night talks with your roommate that never happened.

Every social event you skipped for a MATH 1400 quiz.
All the classes you would’ve passed anyway.

All moments that, in hindsight, really weren’t that deep.

Grades aren’t unimportant—you’ll still care. You’ll still work hard, and that’s okay.
You’ll refresh Canvas more times than you’d like to admit. You’ll feel your stomach drop at a score that doesn’t reflect the effort you poured in.
You’ll convince yourself that your GPA defines your worth.

But it doesn’t.

Try your best—but not at the cost of your mental health.
Not if it means sacrificing your smile, your laughter, your joy.
Not if it means saying “no” to a spontaneous midnight Wawa run with your roommate.
Not if it replaces memories you won’t regret making—going for a walk with that boy from your STAT class, agreeing to live with a girl you just met, going on that Punta Cana trip with your parents, or crossing the finish line of the Philadelphia Marathon.

Say yes to taking the nap, even when your to-do list is still full.
You’ll focus better when you’re rested anyway.

Say yes to walking to class with someone new, even when you don’t know what to talk about.
It’s okay for things to feel a little awkward at first.

Say yes to going to your professor’s office hours, even when you’re embarrassed that you don’t get it.
You’ll realize they really aren’t that scary.

Say yes to applying to be a Head TA for a brand-new class, even when you’ve never learned Python before.
You’ll figure it out—and then some.

Say yes to a spring break trip with girls you barely know, even when you’re not sure what to expect.
Turns out, they’ll become some of your people.

Say yes to moving across the country alone for the summer, even when you feel totally unprepared.
You’ll realize it is where you want to live.

Say yes to skipping a study session to sit on the grass and feel the sun on your face, even when there’s a quiz tomorrow.
You’ll remember the warmth—not the grade.

Let yourself be—messy, imperfect, still growing.

You are not defined by your grades.

You are the girl who runs marathons you never thought you could finish.

You are the Head TA for courses you never imagined leading.

You are the introvert who has friends you no longer have to count on one hand.

You are the STEM student who studies Jackie Robinson and Alexander Hamilton just because they excite you.

You are the person who is about to move to California to start a new chapter.

You are so much more than any score can measure.

And at the end of the day, nothing is that deep.

Love,
Molly L.

molly.limaye@gmail.com

Dear Penn Freshman, 

I was never a freshman at Penn. I transferred to the University of Pennsylvania from the University of Michigan as a sophomore. I cannot tell you the best freshman dorm or the best class to take that is only open to freshmen, but I can tell you something I have learned as I look back on the past four years. 

I commented recently to a friend that when you start college, you are still basically a high school student (assuming you came straight through), but by senior year, you are well on your way to becoming an adult. I definitely think that has been true for me. I look back and I wonder how that happened, when it started, and why I did not notice it along the way. It is only now, when I think back to my first semester of college, do I see how far I have come and how much I have changed. I think it is important, however, to not view this change as a bad thing or as a corruption of some pure version of yourself that does not really exist. 

Although I can give you plenty of practical advice about how to pick the right class or manage your extracurricular calendar, I think overarching all that advice is the idea that college will be an intense, busy, potentially life-changing journey that will see you change as a person. I moved to the midwest, then across the country, learned to navigate two big cities, and spent a semester working in D.C. I would like to think that I have not changed so irrevocably that I would be unrecognizable to my high school self—I still enjoy reading and hiking and a good thunderstorm—but if I take a step back, I can see how things that were a big part of my life no longer are. I can also see how some of the things that I consider to be a big part of my life now were not then. I am no less myself because of it. 

If I can impart one piece of advice, it is to embrace the change that your time at Penn will have on you. The rest is commentary. 

Sarah M

Dear Freshman Hannah, 

Let me start by saying this: I am so proud of you. Knowing us, we would immediately say: “Why?”

One moment, we are sitting in Franklin 112, where we decided to occupy the common room of our Quad triple and used a flimsy room divider to give us some sense of privacy. The next, we are selling our belongings for the first time in four years because moving abroad with a coffee table is kind of hard to do. Isn’t it crazy how fast life moves?

As I start packing up the many trinkets we’ve collected over the years, a similar sense of fear starts to creep back in. “How am I going to find a community abroad? Will I make any friends? What if I don’t feel the same fulfillment I felt here?” These questions have become all too familiar now.

We had the same sense of fear when we first arrived in Philadelphia, lying in bed the night before our PENNacle orientation. People don’t believe it now, but you know better than anyone that we were introverts at heart. High school instilled us with bouts of social anxiety, and we became scared of making friends in this new, unfamiliar place.

And yet, I’m so happy to tell you that we’ve broken out of our shell multiple times, with every welcoming community providing us with a new sense of self. Soon, this unfamiliar place will become your second home. You’ll run for student government and get elected, something you almost didn’t do because you lost every election in high school. You’ll join a sorority and gain a whole room of sisters, something you always wished you had as the oldest child in our family. You’ll discover a newfound love in a subject you were initially discouraged from pursuing, and now you are devoting the rest of your studies toward it while helping mentor others like you through the field. You’ll somehow get into the Model UN team, something your younger self would’ve never imagined, especially with our fear of public speaking.

But more importantly, you’ll meet people who change your life. (So cliche, Hannah!)

You’re going to meet one of your best friends in your freshman year through the swim team, the person you shared a wall with in Franklin 112. You’ll then share a room with them in your sophomore year, and the endless hours of the night will be filled with laughter and joy. Keep her close, she’s going to be so important to you. In fact, she’s the reason for the title of this letter. Over a plate of cold Houston pasta during your senior year, she’s going to say: “How lucky we are to have something that makes saying goodbye so difficult!”. That moment will change how we view college entirely.

You’re going to find your ride-or-dies in student government, no matter how challenging it becomes. Amidst the tense elections and long meetings, you’re going to find people who stand beside you no matter what. Your running mate during your junior year will teach you how to follow your heart, take the higher road, and fight for a community you care about. Your three best friends in the UA will bully you endlessly in your group chats, but behind the spam of texts containing pictures of your ugliest self, they’ll provide you a sense of solace and calm you will cherish dearly. You’ll meet someone who offers to walk around with you through High Rise Field after a disastrous round of internal elections, a small act of kindness that, unbeknownst to them, saved you from one of your darkest periods. The underclassmen you meet will be some of the brightest and most passionate people, and you’ll feel so lucky to have crossed paths with them before you graduate. 

You’re going to meet people in your sorority who embody the phrase “to know you is to love you.” They’ll sneak up to your apartment when you go through the worst breakdown of your life just to hug you. They’ll give you your second family, people who crash at your place for long PowerPoint nights and make your stomach hurt from laughter. You’re going to find another one of your best friends here, someone you wish you could’ve spent your entire four years with. Even after she graduates a year before you, you will talk about her so much that it’ll feel like she never left. Keep her close while she is still at Penn, when she is just a couple of minutes away from you. 

You’re going to have mentors who believed in you even when you didn’t believe in yourself. You’ll frequently stop by the office of your favorite CIS professor, not to ask questions about the material but instead to talk about the most random things. You’ll shed tears of joy when you finally get to tell your Chinese teacher that you got into graduate school. You’ll get into dance battles with a professor you TA for. You’re going to meet professors, research mentors, and administrators who help you realize that you are capable of accomplishing anything. 

Your relationships will invigorate and challenge you. They’ll make you realize that maybe a packed Google Calendar isn’t always a priority. You’ll also recognize that you have a lot of love to give, often expressed through cooked meals and small gifts you find. Just remember to always tell those you love that you love them.

The small yet fulfilling interactions you have with members of the Penn community will create opportunities to pause amidst your busy schedule. Whether it's chatting with your favorite concierge at your apartment, saying hi to Rahim, picking up bread from Andy every Wednesday at the farmer’s market, or going to the food truck outside DRL for the third time this week, you'll always be surrounded by people who are excited to hear about your day. 

And most importantly, you’re going to find yourself. Although the moments with friends and mentors will help you realize your potential, the moments by ourselves will help convince us of our potential. We learned on a walk into Center City how to love being alone, how to no longer let our fear of sitting alone overcome the possibility of experiencing life at its fullest. We learned after withdrawing from CIS 1600 right before the final that failure is not the end of the world. We learned after retaking CIS 1600 the following summer that we are more resilient than we thought. We learned how to be vulnerable with friends and professors, how not to feel ashamed of expressing our frustrations and struggles. We learned during an argument with our coach just how deep our passion runs for the things we love. We learned how to enjoy the small things in life, like when we buy Happy Meals from McDonald’s four days in a row to get a specific toy. We learned on spontaneous adventures how not to take life too seriously. And finally, more recently, we learned how to let go of the things we love.

So, to answer your question from earlier: I’m proud of you because we've gained something that makes saying goodbye to this chapter of our lives so difficult. I’m proud of how far we have come, who we have become, the lessons we have learned, and the moments we have cherished. Writing this letter is confirmation for me that I have nothing to worry about, and also confirmation for you that you have nothing to be afraid of.

With love, 

Hannah L.

hannahmliu96@gmail.com

Let me be honest with you. College is hard. Penn? Even harder. You’ll learn once you get here that “Penn Face” isn’t just a trendy term. Check out the Daily Pennsylvanian comics in 1970, and you see a comic about Penn Face. That means that at least 50 years ago, the students at Penn are worried about the same things you’ll be worried about. I’m guilty of it too. Only my closest friends know when, why, and how I ended up at the mental hospital one night and then got escorted to CAPS the next day. My professors know I was struggling, but not the extent. You will feel isolated, to put it bluntly. The people here will try to convince you to fit into the Penn mold. They will try to convince you that you need to be perfect in every aspect. Your appearance, your style, your grades, your income, your professional experience, your volunteer experience, your hometown, your post-undergrad plans, your involvement on campus, etc. etc. etc. 

Maybe I’m biased. I grew up in Santa Ana, California. I’m brown, asexual, genderqueer, have diagnosed depression and anxiety, probably also have undiagnosed ADHD, have pending sleep issue diagnoses and to top it all off, I’m 4’ 11”. How many of those things are common at Penn? How many people are some combination of any of those? I’m pretty sure I’m the only one. My freshman year, I took it to mean that I was isolated. I found solace in the old architecture, thinking about the artists that carved the stone for the gargoyles around the Quad, thinking about the tree that’s older than my great grandfather. I’m glad I got a photo of it before they cut it down. I’m kind of glad they cut it down. That tree was a reminder of how lonely I was, how convinced I was that I would never belong at Penn. 

But I do belong at Penn. You belong at Penn. Brown people belong at Penn. Queer people belong at Penn. Disabled people belong at Penn. Everyone belongs at Penn, because this is supposed to be an institution that brings people from all walks of life together. If you find someone with the exact same story as yours, which I doubt you will, you probably already know them. I encourage you to branch out, to go to every event a flyer points you to. Join GroupMe chats, add your Partiful calendar to your Google Calendar, and sign up for every newsletter. I guarantee that you’ll find an event at Penn that will connect you to some of the most wonderful people you’ve ever met. Oh and also, please make sure you have an email filter. If I see a single one of you hit the triple digits in unread emails, I will take it as a personal offense.

Penn is incredibly scary. It’s stressful to keep up with everything that happens on campus, your classes, and your friend group, but you should embrace that. You’re not only getting access to an incredible education, you’re getting access to people from around the world who all share a passion for the betterment of the world, whatever that may mean for them. I encourage you to find the people who have a similar definition as you, because those will be the people who help you avoid the Penn Face and find your true face instead.

Jackie G.

Dear Freshman Hadley,

Congratulations! Your years of hard work and dedication have led you to Penn. You made it. You’ll arrive full of optimism, believing that if you just try hard enough, you can make your experience perfect. But life doesn’t quite work like that, and that’s something you’ll slowly come to understand. You’ll learn to take things day by day, hour by hour when you need to. The journey here will challenge you, but you'll emerge stronger and more grounded than when you first arrived.

Penn can feel like its own little world, a fast-paced and all-consuming bubble tucked away from the rest of Philadelphia. That first fall, you’ll immerse yourself in everything: classes, the Quad, parties, late nights that blur into mornings. Some nights will be unforgettable, but others will leave you feeling a bit empty and a bit lost. You’ll keep going out with the same people, hoping to recreate the comfort and connection you felt in your high school friend group. But not every bond here is meant to last forever, and that’s okay. Give yourself grace as you navigate it all. And don’t be afraid to step outside the Penn bubble to explore the city and its neighborhoods. Philly has a lot to offer, and sometimes the perspective you need is just a few blocks beyond Locust Walk. 

In the winter, you’ll go through sorority rush over Zoom from home while recovering from COVID, looking for a fresh start. It won’t be exactly what you imagined, but it will introduce you to people who make you feel a little more at home. Eventually, a few girls will become your closest friends. You’ll tell them almost everything, except for what you haven’t yet admitted to yourself: that you’re trying to prove your worth in ways no one can see. Even surrounded by people, it’s still possible to feel disconnected sometimes – especially from yourself.

On paper, everything looks great – strong grades, a summer internship, and a social calendar filled to the brim. But beneath the surface, the pressure to control, to perform, to be “enough” in every way will begin to take its toll. You’ll start to disconnect from yourself, pushing your body and mind to meet standards that were never sustainable. You’ll convince yourself that being in control is the same as being okay. Coming home at the end of freshman year, someone you love will notice that something’s not right. It will be one of the hardest things you ever hear, but also one of the most important. That moment will start a long, brave process of healing. You’ll begin therapy, and slowly, the light in you – the one you dimmed – will begin to shine again. The path to healing won’t be linear, but it will be worth it. I am so proud of you for choosing it. 

Sophomore year, you’ll transfer into Wharton after realizing Math Econ isn’t your path. You’ll fall in love with Marketing and Business Analytics, a space where creativity meets data and where your ideas can come to life. You’ll navigate the “finance or consulting” question that seems to echo through classrooms and coffee chats, even when neither path really feels right to you. Career Services won’t have all the answers either, and that will feel frustrating at times. But you’ll keep moving forward, steadfast in reaching toward what you do want, even if you can’t name it yet. Sometimes clarity comes from slowly crossing off what isn’t for you.

Studying abroad in Barcelona junior spring will be one of the best decisions you make, and it will change you in the best way. Flying solo to Spain will be intimidating, but you’ll quickly find joy in the unfamiliar – in slow mornings reading at cafés, spontaneous weekend trips, and new friendships with people from all over the world. You’ll travel to ten countries, collect stories in every city, and cap it all off singing and dancing your heart out at the Eras Tour in Stockholm. You’ll return home more confident, more independent, and more in love with the world around you. Sometimes, the most powerful way to find yourself is to step far outside what you know. 

Senior fall back at Penn will feel like a fresh start – a whirlwind of reunions and a renewed excitement to soak up every moment on campus and out in Philly. But not every friendship will pick up where it left off. A few relationships won’t survive the time or distance, and that will sting more than you expect. You won’t always get the closure you want. But instead of focusing on what faded, you’ll learn to pour your energy into the people who truly give it back. Eventually you’ll let go of relationships that no longer serve you, not out of bitterness, but because you’ve grown. Sometimes, you outgrow people, and that’s okay. Letting go creates space for what’s meant to find you.

So, freshman Hadley, if I could leave you with a final piece of advice, it would be this: be where your feet are. You won’t always know what comes next. You’ll get it wrong sometimes, and you certainly won’t have the perfect Penn experience you imagined. Success isn’t linear, and neither is belonging. But your journey here will allow you to develop a stronger sense of who you are, what you value, and how far you’ve come. You’re not here to be perfect, you’re here to become. And that will be more than enough. 

With all my love,

Senior Hadley

Dear Freshman Keemia,

Aren’t you all grown up now, having moved all the way across the country from everything familiar and cush? Not even close. You applied to this school Early Decision and once you got in, well, that was that. No California universities were even graced with your application. From the start, you knew you wanted to travel far, far away. Your father always says you have a wanderer’s spirit, and he’s right. You’ll spend the next four years wondering if you made the right choice, if perhaps you wandered too far… 

You haven’t. Discomfort is the predecessor to growth. I regret to inform you that you’ll spend many nights crying in your single in the Quad, feeling completely isolated from student life. You’ll be wracked with guilt over having left your family in fog-crested San Francisco. You’ll miss creamy avocados and the Pacific Ocean and year-round temperatures that never drop below 50º. Most of all, you’ll miss having a strong Iranian community to support you through the turbulence and self-doubt. Penn is a fairly diverse place, but something it lacks is an active Persian student life. The director of the Middle East Center informs you, rather plainly, that “Philly isn’t San Francisco. There just aren’t that many Iranians here.” He’s right. After all, there isn’t a single Persian restaurant in the city. Still, his words startle you like a slap. He advises you to ‘be the change you want to see’, but as a meek freshman who won’t meet another Iranian student until January, you don’t know where to start. That’s okay. Four years later, and I’ve only made a handful of Iranian friends during my time here. What it taught me is that, sometimes, you have to be your own community. You learn to replicate the dishes your mother made growing up, riffing with the ingredients available to you. You make a habit of shopping from the Middle Eastern store on 43rd and walnut; sometimes, you’ll run into a fellow Iranian and soak in the melody of your mother tongue. You take a class on Iranian Cinema, and another on Modern Middle Eastern Literature. You begin speaking Farsi to yourself as a means of remembering. It isn’t perfect and you’ll try your hardest not to grow jealous–– or worse, resentful–– of the students who have more active cultural communities on campus. You discover what you can’t live without–– Persian music and the smell of saffron wafting through your dorm kitchen–– and you hold on to it. 

Here’s my advice to you, my beautiful, lonely, sheltered freshman self: Try. Everything. You’ve already made a Philly bucket list–– now, follow it. You never saw yourself as the type to rush a sorority, but fuck it, why not? Maybe you’ll get dropped, maybe you won’t; maybe you’ll meet kind people along the way. Join every club that piques your interest at the club fair. (Sidenote: go to the club fair. It’s not dorky. It’s not embarrassing. Joining the mailing list isn’t a blood oath, but it could be the start of something promising.) Don’t bail on social events out of anxiety! Go to that BYO at Marrakech even if you’re tired and maybe don’t love the thought of dropping $35 (in cash!) on mediocre Moroccan food. You might enjoy it; you might tip the belly dancer a crumpled $5 bill and receive a smile in return. When the weather is nice, snag a seat outside ARCH, even though you’re a sworn-SABS-hater. Forget how much you dislike being stared out, and just stare back. Remember Agnès Varda? “OK, they’re looking at me. But I’m looking at them.” Go on that trip to the Poconos, even though you’ve never been the outdoorsy type and have a paralyzing fear of almost every kind of bug. Try every new experience even if you’re not sure whether or not it’ll stick. I know you, Keemia, and you have a strong moral compass; you know when to say no. What you need to learn is when to say YES.

Amongst the best decisions you made during your time at Penn? Finding good, kindhearted people and befriending them. Choosing to work at the Common Press (Penn’s letterpress studio, located in the basement of Fisher Fine Arts) despite the meager pay and dungeonesque ambiance. Studying abroad in Paris. (Self-explanatory.) Directing two plays, one your sophomore spring, the other your senior fall. Prioritizing taking classes you’re passionate about, classes that allow you to make as much art as possible. Some recommendations: Intro to Black & White Photography with Gabe Martinez, anything with Melissa Jensen, Advanced Creative Nonfiction with Lise Funderburg, Screenwriting with Kathy Demarco Van Cleve… Joining Bloomers, the ABCD sketch comedy group you do costumes for. If someone had told you in high school that you’d be involved in collegiate sketch comedy, you would’ve scoffed. As if. Now, you can’t imagine your Penn experience without it. 

Ultimately, this is just the beginning. They say college is the best four years of your life, but I don’t think that’s true. I still have so much to learn–– so many books to read, and songs to discover, and movies to watch, and people to meet… These last four were just the best years so far. The future is sublime. 

With endless love, support, and pride,

Keemia S. 

Dear Freshman Ceci,

Coming to college feels like being a small fish released into the ocean. Despite your summer of research and Reddit deep dives, Penn is overwhelming and uncertain. You’re grappling with a shoebox of a dorm room, a “work hard, play harder” culture, challenging coursework, and dwindling self-esteem. Worst of all, you don’t have anyone to share this with. You’re wondering if you’ll ever make friends, figure out a major, and if the next four years will be as unnerving as the first couple of days (yes, yes, no).

Before you pack your bags, know that I’m incredibly excited for you. Your best days are yet to come. You will leave Penn with a happy heart. But this isn’t to say that everything is all sunshine and roses – you mess up, a lot, but college is nothing if not a cycle of falling and getting back up. To help you out, I’ve compiled a list of my ten greatest takeaways from Penn. I hope they don’t spoil the story but guide your intentions over the next four years.

Throw your expectations out the window

“College is the best four years of your life” is a lie. College is a learning curve. This can be an incredibly challenging period of transition where you learn to be an adult. It can be messy, but it wouldn’t be any fun if it weren’t.

Everyone feels this way

I know it seems like everyone else has college figured out, but over time, you’ll realize that they are just as confused as you are. It’s expected to feel out of place in your first semester, and nothing is wrong with you if you do. All students worry about their belonging in college, but over time, I came to feel at home, and you will, too.

Run your own race

Being grouped with other students your age makes comparison incredibly easy. But just like flowers, people blossom at different times. You won’t meet some of your best friends until sophomore and junior year, and you’ll figure out job stuff long after your Wharton friends do. All of this is okay, as what’s meant to be will be.

Give yourself grace

It’s easy to harp on when you make mistakes or face challenges. Instead, treat yourself with the same kindness, understanding, and forgiveness that you would offer a friend. Acknowledging your imperfections and learning from your experiences without dwelling on the past is key to personal growth.

Give others grace

We only know a sliver of what’s happening in people’s lives. I’ve criticized others for slacking off, only to find out later that they were struggling. Being quick to judge is something I’m continually addressing in myself. Extend forgiveness, compassion, and understanding, even if other people don’t seem deserving of it.

Embrace difference

Coming to Penn is a major culture shock for you. You don’t yet fully appreciate that you grew up in a bubble and that there is more than one way to live. Penn’s strength lies in its diversity, so take the time to hear people’s stories and listen to alternative opinions.

The experiences that scare you the most will shape you the most

On my first night of study abroad, I googled BCN - JFK flight tickets and pleaded with my mom to let me come home. Yet, abroad quickly became the highlight of college. I spoke Spanish, ate tapas, admired the architecture, and traveled Europe by weekend. I never could’ve done this had I stayed home. Going outside of your comfort zone leads to fulfillment and personal growth.

Be spontaneous!

I barely remember any of the assignments I did freshman year, but I have fond memories of getting late-night Wawa and running around Hill with my friends. Work will always be there, but college is only four years. Say yes to new opportunities and making memories.

The best things you do here won’t be on a resume

Penn has an intensely pre-professional culture with an emphasis on quantifiable achievements. Yet my best experiences here have stemmed from love, friendships, and simple joys. There’s much more to you than what’s listed on your resume, and that one sheet of paper doesn’t define your worth.

Practice gratitude

I studied the concept of gratitude in a Positive Psychology class, and I’m trying to be more intentional about it. It's easy to take things for granted, but I’m trying to stay mindful of the gifts I do have: my health, education, family, friends, and opportunities. Gratitude shifts our mindset to one of abundance and opens the door to numerous health benefits.

I hope this advice can be a guiding light for your first year. By no means will my words prevent you from screwing up royally on occasion. But if you return to this guidance and stand firm in who you are, you can get back up every time.

Best,

Ceci

Dear Freshman Clara, 

Once upon a time. What magical words. The start to a story. When we hear these words we are prepared to hear of twists, turns, challenges, and victories. They are reflective, inviting the storyteller to look into the past. When we hear them, we brace ourselves for the adventure ahead, and we hope for a happy ending.

Once upon a time, I was a freshman at Penn, where you are now. I was excited. I was nervous. I was thrilled. I was terrified. I was scared of finding friends, finding my classrooms, finding a job, or finding out that I was a failure. But this same, frightened freshman was, once upon a time, a little girl. 

Once upon a time, this little girl fell in love with mystical worlds. She read books, watched movies, and sang songs that transported her to fantasies where she was a graceful princess or a brave heroine searching for her destiny. Through her favorite Disney movies and fairytales, she learned a series of childhood mantras.

But these storybook lessons are not just for children. In fact, as you enter your freshman year of college, these lessons from your childhood are perhaps more important than ever. 

The first, “Never Grow Up.” You’re moving far away from home. You’re facing important and heavy decisions that will impact your future. Everyone around you is trying to prove how old they are and how much they know. In these moments, listen to the words from your favorite fairytale, “Peter Pan.” You may be getting older, but remember to stay young at heart. Don’t be afraid to admit what you don’t know, because how lucky are you to be able to learn? Don’t be afraid to have a youthful spirit, because how joyful is it to laugh so hard your stomach hurts? As you take classes, maintain a childlike sense of wonder. As you make friends, give yourself the chance to have childlike fun. And, as you build relationships, adopt a childlike humility, apologizing and forgiving quickly and easily. The world can age you quickly, so don’t accelerate the process. There is something so beautiful and valuable about youth. 

Next, “Have courage and be kind.” Just like Cinderella, you may encounter people who challenge your ability to be kind. But that is why kindness requires courageousness. Sometimes, exercising kindness, both to yourself and others, will require you to distance yourself from those who do not value kindness. Be bold and go against the grain. Stand up for your peers, stand up for yourself, and stand up for what is right. At a top business school and competing for top jobs, it can be easy to fall victim to the pushed mentality that kindness is weakness and generosity is unprofitable. I am telling you now that this is not and will never be true. Yes, be outspoken. Yes, be proactive. But these traits do not have to come at the expense of your morality. No job, grade, or paycheck is worth the erosion of your character. So, treat others with kindness. Even bosses who yell at you, group project members who don’t do their share of the work, or friends who have hurt you. I have learned through experience that losing your temper never makes anything better, and that exercising kindness helps everyone win. 

From the story of Arendale we learn, “Love is an open door.” Fall in love. Fall in love over and over again. Fall in love with your friends. Fall in love with what you study. Fall in love with life. Fall in love with yourself. If you practice falling in love, you may even find the person you want to love for the rest of your life (spoiler–you did). What a gift it is to love. But, it is also a choice. It is easy to look at yourself and your circumstances and pick apart everything bad. My advice to you is to choose to be joyous, choose to love. In a society that pushes pessimism, this isn’t easy, but I promise you there is an unlimited upside to choosing to smile, choosing to love. 

“Dream Big.” Rapunzel spent her life dreaming, and I encourage you to do the same. Sometimes, you will find yourself feeling trapped in someone else’s dream, forced to make career choices that conform to the path laid before you. This isn’t an innately bad thing, but remember to keep dreaming. Regularly take inventory of what you want from life. And don’t forget, you have an incredible education, a strong network of support, people who love you, and talents and skills. You really can reach for the stars, so don’t stop dreaming. 

But one of my favorite mantras by Tiana is that “Dreams take hard work.” You are no stranger to hard work. Keep it up. Nothing valuable is easy. You’ll have late nights, early mornings, exams and interviews that feel impossible, and seasons where the to-do list feels endless. But remember—Tiana didn’t wish upon a star and wait. She rolled up her sleeves, stayed true to herself, and built her dream step by step. And you will too. The dreams you’re chasing—whether they’re about your career, your passions, or the kind of person you want to become—are worth the effort. Trust the process. Stay disciplined. 

And finally, remember Mufasa’s wise words “Remember who you are.” Penn is a whirlwind. A good one, but it’s crazy. Remember not to get lost in Penn face, social climbing, and pretending to be someone you’re not. You deserve to be here. You earned it. You are valuable, important, and worthy. You are not defined by your resume, your GPA, or interviews you land. You are defined by your heart, your integrity, and the way you treat others. Remember your parents, who have worked hard to get here. Your family members, who have set examples for you. Remember your identity. Remember who you are

“A dream is a wish your heart makes.” Clara, you made it to Penn, and the best four years are ahead of you. You are already living a dream, and you get to keep dreaming. Keep wishing. Stay true to your heart and your time at Penn will be your dream come true. 

Once upon a time I was where you are, and today, with graduation just weeks away, I couldn’t be happier. I know, without a doubt, that you are going to find your happily ever after. 

Sincerely, 

Clara M

Dear Freshman Madeline,

You did it! You are finally about to graduate! You'd be surprised at how much you have grown over the past 4 years. I know freshman year has been tough and that you think that nothing is ever going to get better, but trust me when I tell you that it actually does get better. I remember that feeling on move-in day as I watched from my window and saw my family leave. The tears ran down my face as I realized that I was alone. Alone in a new state with a whole bunch of strangers. I quickly realized that making friends wasn’t as easy as I had pictured it would be. Entering college right after having had over a year of social isolation from Covid didn’t help either. It felt overwhelming not knowing anyone at all, being in a new city, not knowing how to interact with others as covid cases were still rising in Philly, and seeing others already in “close knit” friend groups. I remember feeling so out of place, longing to run back home, and questioning whether I picked the right school. But I am here to tell you now that the loneliness you are feeling ends up making you a stronger, more independent woman who learns that experiencing life by herself is just as beautiful. It also propels you to get out of your comfort zone and appreciate the people that come into your life along the way. You will make friends throughout your journey at Penn and you will treasure your memories with them very dearly. Some of your closest friends here are already right in front of you, and you don’t even realize how much they will mean to you. You will grow to love Penn and realize that Penn was the right place for you. Now I am about to graduate, and I am honestly not ready for my Penn experience to be over.

I know you might be struggling right now trying to keep up with life at college while also trying to keep up with life back at home. It feels like you're in the middle of a tug of war. You feel like you have to prove to your hometown friends that your friendships will not fade away. In doing so, you are constantly trying to keep up, but what you don’t realize is that you aren’t living in the present. I wish I could tell you to not worry about that so much. Your hometown friends and family will still be there for you. You don’t have to sacrifice your social life here to showcase your commitment to your friendships back home. You can and will end up finding that healthy balance.

I know that you think that you have your trajectory at Penn all figured out since the moment you wrote your Common App, but that is not the case at all. Most of the clubs that you wrote about in your Common App and thought would be integral parts of your journey at Penn weren’t the ones that actually shaped your journey here. Clubs that you weren’t even aware of before coming to Penn and clubs that you helped build would actually be the ones that shaped your experience the most. You got to be a part of Spec Concerts and help put on the Spring Fling concert for many years. You also had the chance to work with artists, like Metro Boomin, and be a part of helping break UPenn’s concert attendance record. You also helped build a whole new community at Penn (Reach At Penn) for people interested in digital marketing, social media, entertainment, and content creation. By following your instincts and immersing yourself in environments that allow you to pursue your interests and passions, you will grow to love Penn and you will not want to leave. Saying yes to spontaneous invites, laughing with friends over dinner, and finding your joy at Penn will shape your experience and allow you to flourish. Everything will turn out fine and you are meant to be here.

Love,
Madeline M.

madelineb0307@gmail.com

Dear Freshman Molly,

It is hard to believe it now, but you will win the game.

Everyone here seems to always be on, always knowing what to do. Everyone is miraculously busy beyond belief, but somehow has time to sit on Locust and SABS. Everyone has their friend group and their fancy clubs titles and their own sphere of orbit. Everyone is feeding into the cyclical culture of Penn, creating an environment none of your friends outside of Penn will ever understand. You thought college admissions was a game, but thriving at Penn is the hardest game of all. 

I know it feels like you will never win the game of Penn. Never find your people. Never find your passion. Never reap the rewards for your backbreaking work in high school. Never live the dream of a dream school. Never seamlessly become part of the fucked up life of a Penn undergrad.

But I am proud to say that you do. You make Locust your chess board, and you win the whole damn thing. 

You will find the people who will drop everything when things go wrong. You will walk into a party and people will run to hug you. You will barely study for an exam and end up with an A. You will even become a campus celebrity to some. You will rise to the top of an organization you care deeply about. You will sit on your Delancey couch and laugh until you cry. 

But to play the game well, it doesn’t come without cheating. To win, you must feed into the Penn culture, and become the person you promised you would never become.

You will roll your eyes when random underclassmen wave to you on Locust from your club. You will cancel plans with your true friends because “something comes up and I am so so sorry.” You will never get lunch with those people you promise. You will glare at the people your roommate told you to hate on Locust. You will tell everyone it isn’t that deep when you get rejected from senior societies, when it is in fact, very deep.

But to win the game, you also have to make some wrong moves. 

Some nights you will sink at Smokes. You will sleep past your alarm and miss class. Some nights you will sit alone in your room and scroll on your phone as everyone else goes out. You will go on a networking call and break down in front of a stranger. On bid day, you will wonder what happened if you rushed again sophomore year. You will ponder why you did not enter consulting while walking by a Saxby’s coffee chat in sweatpants. 

However, you made it to the end of the game.

And how did you get there? For all of the cheating, there were just as many powerplays.

It took a lot of daily grinds and chicken wraps. It took some wild turns of fate. It took going through several friend groups freshman year. It took some upperclassmen who saw themselves in you and believed in you. It took putting yourself first. It took Irish goodbying from class when it was too overstimulating. It took a lot of tears and three fired therapists. It took going back to summer camp each summer because it's what you needed to do. It took reconciling who you were with who you were becoming.

And after acing the game, what do you get for winning? 

An encyclopedic knowledge of Penn’s administration. A caffeine addiction. A notes app full of moments you do not want to forget. People who celebrate your biggest accomplishments. Cute grad photos on a picturesque Friday. A dream come true. A persona that freshmen you would be so so proud of. 

So don’t run away from the game. If you came in a winner, what would have been the point? It will take time to learn the rules and learn to cheat. You don’t end with a perfect score, but no one does. 

Congratulations. I am so proud of you.

Love you to the Tampons and back,

Molly C.

Dear Penn Freshman,

When I committed to Penn, I thought I had it all figured out. I had the resume, the goals, the identity — neat little boxes I could check off to prove I belonged here. I genuinely assumed my experience at Penn would be another box checked and a dream fulfilled. 

Spoiler: I didn’t know sh*t.

Nothing about Penn has been what I wanted or expected. Being admitted as class of ‘24, freshman year started off with campus closed. My first semester finished in my childhood bedroom at the desk gifted to me when I was eight. When my mom  was diagnosed with cancer that same semester, the ground dropped out from under me. Kind of set the tone, unfortunately.

I told myself it would get better. But sophomore year and junior fall were a mess of pre-med classes that left me questioning my intellect and my purpose. I was riding the bench of the sport I was recruited to play  while trying to pretend I was okay with it until a career-ending injury turned me into the team manager. Eventually, I was dismissed entirely from the very  team I had been so excited to play for and told directly that I "no longer brought any value.”

At a mental low, I failed a class. It was the breaking point that led me to take a year off from Penn. (Yes, I failed a class. At an Ivy. But guess what? We’re not here to look perfect on paper regardless of what your peers try to tell you).

Here’s what I actually did figure out during that time away:

Stop taking yourself so seriously.

Get your work done. Work hard for what matters to you and stop acting like you need a round of applause every time you’re “grinding.” No one’s going to give you a trophy for being the busiest person on Locust.

Talk to strangers! Ask people how they’re doing and actually mean it. Let yourself look stupid trying something new. Say the wrong thing and learn from it. Stop caring what the “elites” of the school are doing. Step outside the Penn bubble before it eats you alive.

Forget the uniform, the curated outfit, the name-drop status, the script of small talk. No, the Longchamp bag won’t help. If you stay genuine and kind, you will find that there are people here who see you for more than just your resume. Focus on their point of view  and let the rest of the opinions go. Why water yourself down for people who are just performing anyway?

Do you want the real truth? The moment I stopped giving a sh*t about what people thought was the moment I finally started liking myself and actually enjoyed Penn. (It’s almost like they’ve made movies about that or something. Cue the uplifting music!) 

I hate to break it to you, but you are going to feel like you don’t belong here at some point. But I promise that your GPA and summer internships are not the most interesting things about you. They’re just data points! What really matters is how you treat people. What really matters is what makes you laugh. What really, really matters is who you want to be when you leave this place. 

Find people who give a sh*t about you. Friends to party with are fun, but friends who are around for late night wawa runs and center city exploring are the ones you want to hold on to. 

Let things be messy. Get uncomfortable. Don’t let the intensity of the pre-professional culture consume you. The reality is that someone is always going to be smarter than you,  faster than you, or better than you in some aspect. Instead of chasing them down, turn inwards. Be happy with who you are while working towards your own goals.

If your attention span is cooked, here’s the TLDR:

Mess up and move on. No one cares.

Set goals but get real about what’s actually manageable. 

Ask for help. Most of your peers don’t have things figured out either.

You bring value. You are never a burden.

Life goes on after that hard class or internship rejection.

Be authentic. Try new things. Truly learn.

Go have some f*cking fun.

At one point, I hated who I was. I hated Penn. I was convinced I wasn’t good enough. Turns out, that was all external noise from people who are inarguably irrelevant in my life. Read my bullet points (even if you don’t think they apply to you). Enjoy these moments, because time really does move fast. And no, I’m not saying that because I think I have it all figured out. 

Have an electric four years fellow Quakers,
Annie B

Dear Penn Freshmen,

One of the questions I get asked most often is: do you think you’ve changed during your time at Penn? Obviously, my answer has to be yes. For you, the answer will be yes too, even if you don’t think so (or don’t want it to be) right now. And for those of you who are skeptical or critical, remember that change doesn’t have to be negative, or even positive. Change is just a natural part of life.

And so, there is my first piece of advice – embrace change. When you feel yourself drawn to trying things you never thought you would be trying, whether it’s adding an additional step to your morning skincare routine, or trying out standup comedy, there are no limits to how much you can change, and what that change looks like. So, audition for that spoken word group, even if you’ve never read your poetry out loud before. Try out for that kpop dance team, even if the only time you’ve danced was at prom. Even, maybe, rush that business fraternity all your friends are rushing, even if you don’t even want to go into business. Now you might ask – well what if I don’t get in? What if I get rejected from that spoken word group? What if I don’t make it onto the dance team? What if I rush that business fraternity and all my friends get in, but I don’t? The honest answer is – you just live and learn. Generally, I’m not a fan of cliches. But what I’ve found is that if you don’t try, you might never know what you can find, and what you can gain. And what’s worse than trying and failing, in my opinion, is not trying at all. 

I say all this, because, of course, there is some truth to each of these experiences I used as examples. Rejection is inevitable at Penn. And no matter what people tell you, to not take it personally, that it doesn’t reflect how successful you are, that it won’t matter at the end of the day, it will feel like it does. And so, I say, try it out. Get rejected. Cry and rant to your friends and break down at 3 AM in your dorm room and contemplate dropping out. And then, open your eyes to a new day. Go through the motions. Realize that, as you keep going, the motions are you learning how to live again. (This advice may also apply to other types of rejections, such as romantic ones). Feel all of these emotions, and then continue feeling. Each rejection matters because each victory after is ever sweeter. And soon, you will be able to actually believe rather than just be told that rejection is not personal, that it doesn’t reflect how successful you are, that it doesn't matter at the end of the day. But in the meantime, don’t shy away from it.

There is this quote that has stuck with me, even though I’m not sure where I heard it first. It goes something like: “You won’t appreciate the highs if you don’t experience the lows.” Another cliche, I know, but that is really what college life is all about. There will be times when you find yourself sobbing on the floor of Hill College House 4 Red bathroom. There will be times when you find yourself laughing uncontrollably on the ARCH patio on a sunny day with friends all around you. And it will be in those unbelievably joyous moments where you think – every day leading up to this one was all worth it. 

When I first came to Penn, I was closed off and uncomfortable in my own skin. I never dared to dream I could have a place where I would be able to express myself. The journey to where I am today was not always easy, nor is it, in my opinion, over. I still have a long way to go and a lot more to learn. However, I will always be thankful to the people and this place, for teaching me that happiness is more attainable than you’d think, that you will find it in each serendipitous little moment. You will find out that the world does not end when you spend an entire week during finals season freshman year studying by yourself, because you don’t have anyone to study with you. You will soon struggle to say no when your friends ask you to study together, knowing the night will devolve into non stop yapping. The world does not end when you confess to that girl you like, then spend the next morning throwing up in her apartment bathroom. You will greet her again in a couple years with widespread arms and a smile, heart miraculously whole again. The world does not end when you cut your hair to a length you would’ve never dared to try before, dress in a style you feel truly yourself in, let yourself love who you’ve always wanted to love. 

One time, I shared to a room full of almost strangers that my favorite book was The House in the Cerulean Sea. At the time, I could only wonder when I would feel at home at Penn. Now, I know when I turn back to look at Locust Walk, flowers and trees in full bloom, yellow speckled pollen drifting through the air, a frisbee being thrown between a gaggle of students on the lawn, when I ask myself: “don’t you wish you were here?” The answer will be a thousand times over: yes, yes, yes. Yes, I wish I was here. 

Isabella A.

Dear Penn Freshmen,

If there’s one thing I wish I could tell my freshman self, it’s this: college is one big simulation. You will experience your highest highs and lowest lows during these four years, but you will eventually realize that it’s not that serious. I still have to remind myself of that every day, but I truly believe that once you internalize this mindset, you will start to enjoy the journey that is life.

I won’t deny that I was intimidated by college when I first arrived on campus. I had watched enough movies to know that college was supposed to be the “best years of my life,” but no one had really specified what to expect. When it came around to club applications, I stumbled around in the dark, applying to the only club that piqued my interest, only to find out later that joining 3-4 (pre-professional) clubs is practically a freshman rite of passage. The decision to try out something I was genuinely interested in ended up being one of my favorite memories at Penn, stretching my creative limits in ways I hadn’t expected. Part of me wishes that I had sought out advice from seniors and explored more options before committing to one thing, but maybe following that advice would’ve taken me down an entirely different path. I guess what I’m trying to say is, advice is not inherently good or bad. It depends on what’s a good fit for you and the whole point of college is to figure that out.

I figured out balance isn’t a conditional reward—it’s a necessity. I was ready to pull all-nighters to perfect that essay, cancel my weekend plans to do a few more practice exams, or skip a meal just to squeeze in another hour of interview prep. I thought that was what hard work looked like, but in reality, it was the most basic recipe for burnout. It wasn’t until I spontaneously signed up and started training for a 10K that I realized how important exercise was to my mental health. Now, as a senior with less than two weeks left of classes, I’m trying to cram as many social events as I can into my schedule, realizing how privileged I am to live just a Locust Walk’s distance from my friends—and how much I missed when I thought I had to earn every break.

I also figured out that I should celebrate my failures as much as I do my successes. In an environment like Penn, it’s easy to internalize your failures and externalize your successes. Once I put my ego aside, I realized that I was punishing myself unnecessarily for experiences that were helping me learn more about myself. Even though that internship didn’t work out the way I wanted it to, it gave me the opportunity to explore new roles and possibilities. Even though that rooming arrangement fell apart, it pushed me to understand and communicate my own boundaries. And even though I never followed through on any of my 4-year course plans, my growth stemmed from the most unexpected classes.

Lastly, I figured out that I don’t need to have it all figured out. I used to think of seniors as these Omniscient People who knew exactly what their calling was. But the truth is, it feels more like an educated improvisation through life—all that matters is that you keep learning, adjusting, and moving forward without needing to rely on a script. The fun of college is that it’s a choose-your-own-adventure game. As much as people want you to save the damsel in distress, you have the freedom to rewrite the ending a million times—and that’s what makes the journey so damn worth it.

Anonymous

Dear Freshman Sophia, 

In a surprise to no one, I’ve procrastinated writing this letter, I’ve thought a lot about what I want to say but sitting down to write it makes my impending graduation feel real. It feels weird writing this letter, pretending that I have it all figured out, where in reality I truly don’t. So what I will try to do is discuss some lessons I have learned over the past four years. 

Coming into Penn, you were so excited and felt like you knew everything and over the past four years I have learned we could not have been more wrong - and learning just how little you know about the world and life is terrifying, scary and hard. But that’s ok! That is what life is for - learning! And no one (and I mean no one) knows what they are doing. Everyone you meet here, even if they seem like they have it all figured out, has no clue what they are doing. We are all just trying our best and that looks different for everyone. And that brings me to my most important piece of advice: there is no correct way to spend your time at Penn. There will be nights where it feels like everyone is hanging out with their friends,while you watch TV alone in your room, afternoons where everyone is recruiting for finance/consulting jobs while you have no clue what career path you want, or just feeling like you are doing everything ‘wrong’ here. Everyone does Penn differently, that’s the beauty of it: everyone is unique  and what works for them may not work for you. The Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) is real but it doesn’t last forever and nothing (whether that's a party, club, or internship) is ever all that’s hyped up to be. 

You will hear the phrase “Penn is what you make of it” so, so many times throughout your time here and for better or worse, it's true. It's simultaneously terrifying and exhilarating to realize that you can do almost whatever you want: you can join any club you want, take classes in almost any topic you can dream of, go abroad, at Penn the options seem endless. However, what if you don’t know what you want? That is a question I am still grappling with but the best answer I can offer now is that you have to start somewhere, you go by what seems interesting to you at the moment: What feels the most natural to you? What are you curious about? You should also embrace all these options and explore! Shop classes on subjects that seem interesting to you at the beginning of every semester, even if they don’t count for major or general ed requirements, you might be surprised! Try out all the clubs, and attend events that seem interesting to you! Never be afraid to be curious, whether that be intellectually, socially, or anything else. Curiosity is a virtue and a strength. While it can be terrifying and anxiety-inducing to show up to classes or events where you don’t know anyone, talk to people there and get to know them! It’s a superpower to be able to show up to an event or class and be able to have a meaningful conversation with new people - use it! 

During your first year, you will hear a lot of people say that they found their ‘people’, through this club or this organization, and you will take that to heart and spend a lot of time searching at Penn - looking for the right friends, the ‘right’ community, a place that feels right for you - and that search will make you miserable and feel inadequate - like you are fundamentally unsuited for Penn. However, you would have these problems at any institution. This endless search, while hard and exhausting, teaches you so much. There is no one moment that will suddenly make everything better: no one will swoop in to save you- you have to save yourself. 

There will be times where you will feel inadequate - that you are not enough for certain groups or people - if anyone makes you feel bad for being who you are- that’s a THEM problem and you don’t want to be around people like that anyways. Always be yourself, even if you don’t know who that is, it’s better than trying to pretend to be someone you are not. If you embrace your quirks, your interests, your imperfections - other people will too! You want to surround yourself with people who like you for who you genuinely are: not who you pretend to be or who you wish you were. 

Right now, I have incredible friendships-ones freshman and sophomore year me would never have thought possible. These relationships developed over time and required effort and consistency. Friendships can be hard and they require listening and understanding, no one is perfect, including yourself so it's important to always be considerate, take responsibility for when you mess up and be honest! If you are going through something or having a bad day, don’t be afraid to open up and talk about it. Your friends are there for you! 

I know it's a frustrating thing to say but give it time and it will work out. Again, everyone’s path here at Penn is different and comparing your life to an image of someone else’s will only make you feel inadequate. Everything I have now as a senior: wonderful friends, a community, was something I had to put effort into and show up for. Like anything worth having, these things take time, effort and consistency. 

Some quick tips 

Always, always, ALWAYS be kind - even when it's hard or you are having a bad day, you never know what someone is going through and people will always remember how you made them feel. 

Volunteer!! The ‘Penn Bubble’ is real so breaking that and having a positive impact on the community is an invaluable experience. 

Go abroad!! Whether as part of a class, an internship or a semester, leave the country. It will be an adventure and change your outlook on life. 

Penn has so many different kinds of grants and programs - apply for them! Create a research project on a subject you are interested in and go travel! You truly learn so much. 

Penn Course Review will save the day 

Use the SPETA when going into Center City when you can, it will save you so much money (as will going to Trader Joes). I prefer the bus but they can be less reliable/frequent sometimes but they are the best when they work. 

Find a few professors to have in your corner! 

You will never regret a run by the river.

Find a platform to highlight/annotate your online readings (I like Kami).

Never be afraid to attend office hours or ask for help when you need it! 

Penn Rides is basically like free Uber at night around campus, may take a little longer to arrive but still worth it -especially when it’s cold outside-  it's on the Penn Transit app. 

The carrels at Fisher Fine Arts are the best (if you really need to lock in, I also recommend the carrels at Van Pelt or the Wharton Quiet Study Room).

A weekend morning Taylor Swift SoulCycle followed by a walk around Rittenhouse fixes most things.

If someone invites you to an event or a meal- go! You never know who you might meet or what you might learn.  

You can do hard things! 

Running the marathon, doing an independent study, taking hard classes - you are so much more capable than you think! 

I wish I could travel back in time and give you a hug and tell you everything is going to be OK. You will be OK. I can’t promise it will all be easy or fun, nothing worthwhile is. There will be hard, lonely, stressful times but there will also be incredible moments that are made even better because you are suddenly grateful for everything you have been through. Penn can be a big, overwhelming place where some days all you can do is just get through the day - and that’s OK, you are enough! 

But if you are kind, curious and stay true to yourself - you are golden. Easier said than done, I know, but you got this. I am rooting for you! 

All my love, 

Sophia P. 

spcoburn803@gmail.com

Dear Freshman Sakshi,

I want to tell you about a box I keep in my room. It has a collection of letters, stickers, tickets, and various other memories that I’ve gathered over the past few years. It began with a ticket from the first show I went to, Pennchants, to support one of the first friends I had made on campus. At that point, the box wasn’t a box and was just a section of my desk organizer. Then I added my next show ticket. Then a sticker I got from a fall festival in Penn Park. And the organizer kept filling up until I went home for fall break and brought back a box, the same box that’s now sat on my desk for three and half years. 

If I asked you what you thought your college experience would be like before you came to Penn, I know you would have had low expectations. And yeah, your first year won’t be easy. You’ll struggle to find your place in engineering, to make friends. You’ll face some hard realities about your academic capability (surprise: going to a school where everyone was the top of their class means you might no longer be one of the smartest people in your classes). But I want you to know that it’s okay. You’ll make mistakes and you’ll learn from them. You’ll make friends, and maybe it’ll take longer than you thought, but eventually you’ll find your people. 

My advice to you is don’t be afraid to try new things. Go to that dance audition– you might not get in, but you’ll make a good friend that you’ll spend the next few years going to campus events and having late night samosa tasting sessions with. Apply to that engineering club you’ve been thinking about joining– it might become one of the most meaningful experiences of your college career, and you could find yourself running through an airport terminal to make it to your flight back from a competition senior year. If you thought about it more than once, just go for it! Don’t let the fear of rejection or your doubts control your actions, and you’ll find yourself happier than you ever were before. 
If I’m being honest, college doesn’t get any easier. Switching majors will leave you overloading on courses to make up missing requirements, all the way until your senior fall. Classes are hard, and you’ll pull several all nighters just to complete the bare minimum on your assignments. But through all those difficulties, you’ll also find solace in the people around you. Sure, you might be working in GM labs the night before your BE 309 final project demo, but you won’t remember the small details of that years from now. What you will remember is running to a food truck at midnight so the team stays fed. You might not remember what was wrong with your code, but you will remember that you spent hours choreographing dance moves for a severed cockroach leg (lovingly known as Taylor Roach). 
Before you know it, that box of memories will become full, and your time at Penn will have gone by in a flash. You’ll be on your way to finishing your masters, something that I doubt you ever considered for yourself four years ago. You’ll have grown into a more confident person, and found the friends that you know you’ll be keeping around forever. You’re going to miss Penn, the same way that I sit here writing this letter knowing that I’m going to miss it. I would do it again in a heartbeat (okay, maybe two– those BE classes were traumatizing).

Now, I know you’re probably thinking that this letter has gone on for too long. I get it, I can be a yapper sometimes. So the TLDR is: enjoy yourself and make the most of your college experience. And through it all, don’t forget to love yourself. It’ll be worth it, I promise. 

Love,

Sakshi L.

Dear my silly, eighteen-year-old self,

If you are receiving this letter at the ripe age of eighteen, acceptance letter in hand (or on the computer screen) and a video game open in another, that means that somehow time travel has been invented, and you are either about to walk down the same path that I have walked or will completely alter this pivotal node in our timeline and create an alternative branch in our potentially infinite number of possible parallel universes. However, at this current moment in time, time travel to my knowledge has not yet been invented, and so I am writing this in full confidence that my past self will never be able to read the tales that I am recounting. 

I have been partaking in much reflection on the previous four years of my life as my time as an undergraduate draws to a close. For certain, there are many new things that I have gained; from skills to experience, from friends to mentors, I have both been impacted by and have impacted the people around me. While this may be a rather generic answer, I assure you, my younger self, that the amount of information your brain will intake during these four years of college is no trivial amount. This aspect of learning not only focuses on purely academic knowledge, but also how to study for exams, interviewing skills for the pre professional, organising my solitary life better, and so, so much more that I cannot fit onto this sheet of paper. You will encounter so many new scenarios that you would have never thought to have been on our college radar, and experience it all. From becoming integrated and emotionally attached to the community of people in our major, Digital Media Design, to taking a gap semester to experience work at a company that shall not be named here, your life will be filled with a variety of fruitful endeavours and a copious amount of friends who you will make to make these four years fulfilling. To summarise my point, you will most definitely find meaning here. You will find companions, knowledge (and the pursuit thereof), ambition. You will experience an unearthly drive to learn new subjects and will toil into many dead of nights in order to achieve your desired outcomes on exams, projects, and more. You will also experience friends in a proximity that you never could imagine, staying up countless nights either mindlessly playing video games and laughing about stupid bugs or having the most profound, deep conversations regarding life. With those same friends, you will also go on journeys, whether it be consuming glucose at a nearby restaurant, a day trip to a nearby city, or endless emotional journeys as we all travel down our individual paths, but never stop supporting each other. I know not if you still recall writing the list of things you wish to experience in college; I am fairly certain that finding friends to share your quintessential hobbies and hyperfixations with or something on that vein was on that list. Although I am proud to inform you that that goal has been achieved, no words neither here nor in the past can emphasise how deep these college friendships can run, or how impactful the relationships I have built with the people around me have been on each party involved. To experience these profound emotions yourself, I, as your older self, can only encourage you to try, and try, and try new things, whether it be moving yourself out of your comfort zone of social isolation, or joining clubs and organisations which may not seem the most optimally appealing first. Explore, just like our favourite characters in video games would do, discover the hidden gems of college life, and only then, can you confidently tell me that you have experienced what I currently feel. 

However, I also must inform you that there are things that must be lost, sacrificed, and even forgotten, to a certain extent. But, my younger self, one must realise by now that loss in any form is inevitable, whether it be the loss of an opportunity, or the loss of old, childhood hobbies that you may think you are able to retain during even the most arduous of times. Sometimes, in life, you must choose something to prioritise, and no place trains you better than this than in college. I know more than anyone our tendencies to want to work on every cool sounding project that comes our way, how our fingers twitch in anticipation when a new opportunity to create something amazing happens upon our ears. But, just as how one fears not the man who practises 10,000 types of strokes but the man who practises one stroke 10,000 times, it is impossible to become the master of everything. Therefore, arguably one of the most important pieces of advice that I can give you specifically is to always remember your own priorities. If you cannot decide, you must then learn how to prioritise all of the projects, assignments, courses, and social life activities that you encounter. I say this not in confidence that I have mastered this skill after four years; nay, I still find myself falling into the pitfalls of a tortured creative who desires to work on everything that ignites my creativity, but in warning such that I hope you may be aware of this issue and learn how to navigate it more optimally. Else, your fuse will burn bright and short, and lead to lethargic moping on the embers of your passions. On that dramatic note, this phenomenon actually occurs quite a bit not due to an overload of inspirations, but rather a constant comparison with your peers around you. I will tell you now, that the people who enter into this institution alongside you are all incredibly intelligent in their own right, competent, and as equally motivated as you in various aspects. But, as the ancient Chinese proverb states, one can always learn from at least one person in a group of three people. Knowing you though, you will still feel the impostor syndrome anyway, but please do not let that feeling consume your soul from the inside out, and do not let it take away your individuality, and do not let it sap all of the joy you derive from creating. My dear, younger, and somewhat weak-willed self, I want to call you back to one of our favourite video game quotes that echoes even more pertinently than it did back before. Stay determined. 

Hence, my younger self, I wonder what you imagined for us to turn out as back when you were freshly eighteen, a college freshman just out of quarantine and anxious to meet and experience college? What would you have imagined for us to learn, to experience, to evolve into? Did you imagine that I would meet so many crazy new friends, absorb so much knowledge from said friends and from frankly various professional experiences, that I would perhaps find a relationship in college? Did you perhaps imagine none of that, and maybe think that I would lose my creative ways in college, falling into the quagmire of my negative thoughts? Well, that is for me to know, and for you to find out yourself. Who knows, perhaps the choices that you make (if you ever read this letter, of course) would render your future self much more different than I, but is that not the point of life? Is that not the exploration and discovery about ourselves and the world that we have always been pursuing? Is the point not to figure out your own road yourself without a set in stone guide from a higher order entity from a future timeline holding your hand all the way throughout? This is truly the college experience, I believe. This is what you need to experience yourself. And the only duty that I can perform is to provide as many adages and words of wisdom to prepare you slightly better for your journey across these next four years. So to my younger self, if you are reading this (in an alternate timeline of sorts, otherwise you would be messing with the original timeline), please feel not disheartened by the ambiguity of my actions in college, and instead, interpret my words as you will and live your life. 

Here is to wishing you a unique experience for the next four years of your life.

Best Regards,

Jackie