Freshmen Do’s and Dont’s
As the profile bio of the UofA_fresh_move Twitter page says, “Some things in life are avoidable. Being a freshman is not.” The Twitter account was started in July 2011 in conjunction with the “total frat move” page. It was inspired by incoming freshmen at orientation who asked mentors frequent questions that the creator of the Twitter account has infamously named “freshmove questions.”
The creator of UofA_fresh_move, who wishes to remain anonymous, stated that many of the first entries on the page stemmed from his own experiences as a freshman.
“I think everyone has tried to go through the exit door at Mullins,” he said.
The account has over 4,300 followers, and a lot of them send in their own “freshmoves” to be shared, or re-tweeted, by the creator. He said that the most common “freshmoves” sent in have to do with the Mullins library and their tricky printers, followed by parking tickets and other parking woes.
So what’s the best way to avoid being the next college “freshmove”? Just be mindful about your actions and learn to laugh when you make mistakes. Some of the college freshmen memes, which are recurring themed jokes popular on the internet — and this one is about common freshman errors, say things like, “Arrives to class late, brings note from his mom,” or “Learns about the Daily Show, becomes a political science major,” or an easy favorite, “Says he has no time for homework, plays Call of Duty all night.” Although many of these seem like obvious mistakes, people consistently make them all semester.
There are simple ways to avoid mistakes around campus. Professor Peter Dykema, a professor at Arkansas Tech University, said his best advice is for students to write their names in their textbooks. A common mistake students make is when they leave their textbooks behind in class.
“Campus bookstores don’t care if it’s your textbook you’re selling,” Dykema said, “it seems almost brainless not to do it, yet every year I find textbooks laying around for other students to steal and sell.”
The good thing is that everyone makes “freshmoves,” even those who are currently on the road to graduating. There were followers tweeting in to UofA_fresh_moves all during finals about other students showing up to finals 20 minutes late or showing up at the wrong test date.
The main concept behind UofA_fresh_move is for students to laugh at themselves. Whether someone tweeted or didn’t tweet your public mistake to the account, the odds are that you have been or will be guilty of some of the memes at least once during your college career. That is what makes these memes so relatable – everyone has done them before.
When asked what his best advice to incoming freshmen would be, the creator said for freshmen
“Get involved…in anything. You can’t ‘find yourself’ in college without trying. It is more important than ever that students use involvement to make connections and meet friends. Be smart about your decisions and who they may be affecting. After all, there is a reason freshmen year only happens once, so that we can learn from our mistakes early.”
