In 2006 I transferred to FAU as a 23-year-old commuter student. I kept thinking, “Well, accept that you won’t have any friends because you’re different.”
But according to FAU, the average student is 27 1/2 years old and 90 percent of students live off campus. It turns out I’m a lot more normal than the students I saw with fohawks between classes.
The school’s administration is working toward making FAU a more traditional university. But we aren’t traditional — and that’s a good thing. So, this issue focuses on the unconventional things on and around campus.
I made a point to seek out places that are a bit off the map. I found out why you should really stick around on campus — what the guides don’t tell their tours. I met new people that know of other great places.
For example, while working on this issue, I shot Osama bin Laden with a pistol, danced on a bar, drove a go-kart and ate eggs benedict with a drag queen from Louisiana.
Here are some of the off-the-wall places and things I covered in this New Student Edition to show how exciting being unconventional can be:
-The deceivingly typical soccer season preview actually says which games students should bother going to. I’d like to spare you from any unentertaining games.
-It’s important to have game, especially if you’re hitting on students whose ages range from 18 to more than 31 years old. The lines that worked in high school could make a student feel like a loser in college.
-The money university students pay on average for books could feed 11 children for a year through the Global Angels Foundation. I don’t care if students feed children with the money saved from the article on where to buy books, but the comparison speaks volumes.
-There’s always a story behind the story. The divvy on what’s happening on campus is in the details. Working out produces endorphins in a person’s body. Endorphins make a person happy. Happy people are more willing to get hit on and go to an art reception to drink for free. Or, if the spirit moves you, play video games on a big screen where gaming skills can be shown off. It’s how you find opportunity anywhere.
What I hope students take away from this issue, besides being at least amused, is learning about some things to do that leave them as I was just working on it: shocked, but smiling.
