NC State is a large school. From your first day, struggling to find your way around, to your last, making the trek from the Court of Carolina to the Brickyard for the final time, it never escapes your attention. Its physical size is only fitting, though, seeing as it remains the largest university in the state, with a student body 34,000 strong. Considering the University’s age as well, it’s crazy to imagine that hundreds of thousands of people have ties to the Wolfpack.
Despite its astounding extent, many students still consider this institution their home. As this year’s incoming class arrives on campus, it’s my sincerest hope that they too are able to learn the magic that makes this apparent contradiction possible. The Wolfpack is strong because it is not a monolith, but rather a composite of hundreds of smaller groups, each of us toiling, studying and striving in our own special way to live out our shared ideal of personal improvement through education.
This year, it’s more important than ever for new students to push themselves outside their comfort zone to meet new people. One of the wonders of college is that, for the first time in a long time, many students get the chance to learn how to make friends all over again, not being able to rely on friend groups that may have persisted from kindergarten through high school graduation.
Most years, this happens casually. Maybe you step into class a bit early or linger in the halls a bit late, or you decide who to partner up with in case you miss a lecture. Maybe as you do homework in the lounge of a residence hall, others trickle in to cook, work or socialize, and you gain a sense for the common faces in the community. Wandering through Campus Connections, you stumble on a club that matches your interests, and at the interest meeting, you meet a group of friendly and like-minded peers.
These experiences simply won’t happen the same way when we shutter up in our rooms, and realizing that, new students will have to exhibit admirable creativity as they seek to reinvent their social environment. Of course, as with any year, they will also need to swallow a good deal of awkwardness to breach the gap separating them from new and powerful friendships. Daring to seat yourself next to unfamiliar faces is as uncomfortable as throwing out a “So, how is everyone?” on a Zoom call before the start of class, and just as necessary.
Once this year’s freshmen succeed — and I have high hopes that they will — they’ll have achieved the latest victory in a core human endeavor: Taking on the unknowable behemoth and, through bravery and the application of some human ingenuity, reducing it to a knowable form. In my mind, “Think and Do” means precisely this, that nothing can forever elude understanding; that any human organization — no matter how large and faceless — consists foremost of empathetic humans just as uncertain as you are; and that tasks are made valuable by the amount of hard work they require from you.
The friends I’ve made at school are among the most sincere connections I’ve had throughout my life, founded on common interests, forged through shared experiences and polished by the types of strain unique to the college experience. Through them, I grew to love this university and embrace its challenges. As I wade through my final year, I hope to cherish every experience, and I encourage all of my Wolfpack family, especially our new cubs, to try for the same.
