<p>Personally, my situation has changed significantly. I have become much closer with other people in the townhouse community simply by sitting outside and having “study parties” which turn into talking, laughing, and playing sports…Also many clubs have started which gets me going out and meeting new people.
I pretty much love it here. The people are awesome, the classes are interesting, and it is all so much fun! I have found myself trying so many random new activities that weren’t available to me before. Cornell is an amazing place. The worries/fears I had during orientation week are pretty much gone.</p>
<p>i must say i agree with rlaeghund a bit. i dont feel lonely but i dont have that tight group of friends yet (granted its been a bit less than two weeks). i find that whenever i have a bit of free time on friday or saturday nights most others are drinking it up and thats something i dont want to do cuz im afraid it’ll start taking a toll on my academics. i feel less connected than i did in HS and im not a social outcast or anything. Ive signed up for some clubs that truly do interest me so im hoping that will lead somewhere but yeah…</p>
<p>“i find that whenever i have a bit of free time on friday or saturday nights most others are drinking it up and thats something i dont want to do cuz im afraid it’ll start taking a toll on my academics.”</p>
<p>Not here advocating “drinking it up”, that would not be very “parental” of me. But just to point out, it’s possible that over the long term getting overstressed and overworking yourself, without suitable relief outlets, will itself take a perhaps more serious toll on your academics. You have to let the steam out out a little, along the way, so the engine doesn’t blow up, if you get me. In moderation, of course. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.</p>
<p>@monydad</p>
<p>yeah i get what you mean. i dont study friday and saturday night and go straight to sleep. im playing some ping pong or watching some hulu but ive never been much of a partier (in terms of alcohol). its just that i look at my roommate and he wakes up at 11AM on saturdays and sundays. for me at least i need that time to study and maintain a decent sleep schedule. the one thing i do regret about not going to frat parties is (at least as i see it) the fact that that seems to be the main venue for meeting the other sex. ive met a few people like me, people who just like chilling without alcohol but as i said there arent that many. on weekdays im too busy with classes and research to notice but on the weekends it hits me a bit. abstaining from alcohol (at least for the time being) has taken more of a social toll than i thought it would.</p>
<p>@jerseyindian,
haha, we should meet up or something.
my idea of having fun& relaxing is playing some badminton,
streaming house episodes on hulu, or watching foodnetwork
or “man v. food”.
i wish i had a buddy who shared my passion of watching a chubby man
stuff himself silly on tv. </p>
<p>i don’t understand how you could “relax” with alcohol.</p>
<p>also-
how did you get involved in research already?
i was looking for some opportunities myself… :(</p>
<p>So: Do they force people to drink at these frat parties? What would happen if a guy had a plastic cup filled with sprite, would they throw him in the gorge?</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure D2 didn’t get up before 11am on weekends, before her current job anyway, yet she has thankfully obtained good grades. But people have different work habits, and course schedules, that part is your call.</p>
<p>Pong is social, I spent time there doing that as well. Not so coeducational, but social.</p>
<p>This is college, you gotta do more than study. Live dangerously, get up at 11 Am one Saturday, after doing something fun Friday night. See what happens before you conclude it’s such a bad thing. Adjust schedule accordingly.</p>
<p>Make it a priority to figure out some potentially social things to do.</p>
<p>When you look back, you want to be able to recall more than the color of your Organic Chemistry text book.</p>
<p>i just emailed professors over the summer whether i could do really basic stuff like clean equipment. one guy got back to me and said a postgrad was willing supervise me and i’d do more than wash dishes (right now im learning how to extract musquito protein and run a form of gel electrophoreisis). You just have to email them and someone will get back to you. btw we seem pretty similar lol. i like badminton and im also an avid travel channel viewer. check ur private messages.</p>
<p>I’m not going to try to convince you to start drinking, but it is certainly one of the best destressers for many people. I drank once, maybe twice a week in my first semester, and I found that I was kind of bored some of the time. Second semester, I decided to move to around 3-4 days a week, which may horrify people, but it is only with friends and really makes studying that much easier when I get around to it. My gpa increased from a 3.6 to a 3.9 my second semester. Of course I love all the non-drinking activities like watching movies, badminton, ping pong, and all sorts of sports, but I just wanted to offer another point of view</p>
<p>huh, i may not have the best science skills, but i can do the dishes 
i wonder if any prof’ll still take me.
do i just contact random profs?</p>
<p>@cornellperson,
i really have nothing against drinking itself, but i just don’t want to participate in it.
also i’m not 21 yet.
<em>everyone on the cc thread dies at my dorkiness</em>
yup
i think i’ll now go and ask profs about being their free labor…</p>
<p>rlaehgund - you actually sound quite funny. I think you will do fine socially. I am a mom, so take it with a grain of salt.</p>
<p>for some reason i always assumed oldfort was a man :(</p>
<p>lol yeah same here.</p>
<p>so a few things.
you can certainly keep inquiring about lab jobs. if no one replies, then try again in a month or two.
I don’t think any freshmen should feel pressured to drink. I’m older, but still <21, and I would not drink at a party for that reason. I do drink sometimes, but in ridiculously secure situations, like having a beer when I’m in my parents’ house watching TV. (I really like quality beer, and plan to be a connoisseur of weird beers in a few months. :D) so - I am not going to call rlaehgund a dork when my personal policy is so conservative.
last year I would sleep till 1 PM some Saturdays, even though I hadn’t been partying. I was just exhausted from staying up too late during the week. it’s not a good way to be, and I am seriously hoping to avoid that this year.</p>
<p>I am not a hugely social person though so I always feel bad making these recommendations. I have met a few people at Cornell who I would call my friends, not just acquaintances, but I don’t have a coherent circle of friends who I do a lot of stuff with.</p>
<p>edit: I definitely knew oldfort was a mother.</p>
<p>@CornellPerson, I’m going to have to say, 3-4 times per week is definitely a) not the norm, and b) not moderate, c) probably not healthy.</p>
<p>Now if you mean a glass of wine, that may be different. But if you are getting drunk 3-4 times a week, that’s a blooming problem.</p>
<p>I can see three times a week (thur, fri, sat) but I don’t know how to get that fourth day in. Advice?!</p>
<p>wasted wednesdays? I mean, I don’t get wasted normally during a couple of those days, but still.</p>