Friday was Go Buckeye Day, a day where there were approx. 1,800 potential freshman and their families milling all about campus from around 10:30am - 3pm. What this means to me:

From ignoring a million eyes watch me trek down the hall with my shower caddy in my robe, to helping the newbs at Mirror Lake Café redeem their Visitor Day BuckID meal cards (I could probably recite the campus housing and meal plan spiels in my sleep at this point), Go Buckeye Day really got me thinking.

It was around this time last year that I first laid eyes on THE Ohio State University. I tried to come to the campus with as open a mind as possible, since so much of the rest of my life depended on whether or not I liked what I saw. What I remember about my visit goes as follows:

-My dad laughing for about 20 minutes at a State Farm Insurance billboard proclaiming “…In case you hit a Wolverine.�
-The Union was still standing, though it was surrounded with a construction fence.
-We arrived on campus early and walked around High St. and went to Starbucks.
-We sat on a bench outside Enarson Hall and tried to figure out the ratio of people who were wearing OSU gear to those who weren’t. (Pretty cool, huh?)
-On the actual tour we came into the building that I live in today, which for some reason looks totally different now that I actually live here. Thinking that someday I would be living literally two doors down from the room that I stood in with a handful of other wide-eyed highschool seniors, well it never really occurred to me. Epic realizations like that take a long time to sink in, and even now when I walk to class and look at the buildings and the scenery around me, I sometimes am caught off guard like Woah, I actually IN COLLEGE in OHIO. Here I am. That blows my mind a lot.
-Our tour also went to Mirror Lake Café, where I now spend way too many hours a week feeding hungry college students. I can understand how postal workers go crazy because the mail never stops coming. THE HUNGRY STUDENTS NEVER STOP COMING!
-My tour basically went to all of the places on campus that I never imagined I would spend so much time in: the Science and Engineering library, the Journalism Building, Hagerty Hall, the RPAC, etc.
-Then my dad and I went to Eddie George’s and to the bookstore so I could buy a shirt just in case I never passed that way again.

My dad asked me what I did and did not like about the tour and the University, but honestly, I wasn’t sure. There was nothing I hated. I just didn’t feel like I got to fully explore all of the aspects of the school. There wasn’t anything in particular I thought I was lacking, I was just waiting to compare it to my other options.

I didn’t get to experience the football games, or High St. at night, or living in a dorm with people who I know will be my close friends for at least 4 more years, or playing racquetball at the RPAC, or riding COTA to the Lennox, or concerts at the Newport, or free movies and other events hosted by the Union.

And now everytime I see potential freshman, I want to yell "JUST COME TO SCHOOL HERE! DON’T WORRY ABOUT THE TOUR OR WHAT THEY TELL YOU!" Because you can’t bottle up THE Ohio State University experience into a stroll around campus and a couple of speakers. I’m sure a lot of people come to visit knowing full well that they are going to be here in the fall. But then, for all those others who are just testing the waters, don’t let the rain and the gloomy weather we’ve been having recently get you down. Commit to this university for the simple fact that there’s so much to do, it’s so much fun, the possibilities really are endless. All this and a good education? 50,000 something students really can’t be wrong.

GO BUCKS!