Senior history major
Dear University of Maryland,
Thank you. I have spent the past four years of my life within your confines — first in Ellicott Hall, then in soon-to-be- rubble Carroll Hall and then finishing up in South Campus Commons, where I am most grateful for a full-size bed, a washer and dryer and a charming view of the construction site outside Van Munching.
To my professors: Thank you for telling it like it is. Your classes have not been easy, and you have not sugarcoated anything. I remember taking one of my first courses ever in college, MATH 141: Calculus II, in the musty basement of the Reckord Armory. On the first day, my professor explained that learning the elementary integrals taught in the class would have zero practical impact in our daily lives. They were essentially just “warm-ups for our brains.” If that didn’t hurt enough, he came into a class midway through the semester announcing he had some good news and some bad news. Naturally, the bad news first: The average on the first exam had been the worst he had ever seen in his two decades of teaching this class. The good news? Pop quiz.
To the city of College Park, thank you for … um … being somewhat affordable. Our city certainly isn’t the university town I envisioned, with trendy coffee shops and ethnic restaurants lining verdant, pedestrian-friendly streets. Instead, we have Route 1 and its accompanying concrete jumble, which, I guess, is all a college student can ask for. We have cheap pizza, a CVS (open 24 hours!) and increasingly better food thanks to superb additions such as Krazi Kebob. The bar scene is less than adequate, except for gritty and homely Cornerstone Grill and Loft, where I have very much enjoyed the cheap drinks and neighborly charms during many a Friday happy hour.
Thank you to all the people I’ve met and the friends I’ve made on this campus. You are all wonderful, kind people — Ravens fans included — who have greatly enhanced my experience here. From the self-proclaimed nerds of Gemstone to the self-proclaimed nerds of my a cappella group, Rak Shalom, it has been really special being a part of such a diverse student body from all around the state of New Jersey. This university may boast a beautiful campus and top-notch facilities, but it will always be the students who make this college the amazing place it is.
As graduation races toward me, now less than two weeks away, nostalgia will no doubt set in and encourage me to re-enact everything I have done here, some of which — riding the rowdy Orange bus from North Campus to Route 1 in search of a party I was most definitely not invited to — seem to have happened in a bygone era. Other activities, such as sneaking into Byrd Stadium or exercising more than once a month, seem like more realistic pursuits as I come down the home stretch.
This place, of course, will go on without me. Because I was lucky enough to have attended a world-class university such as this one, I must express my utmost gratitude for the past four years. So once again, thank you, University of Maryland, for providing me with a most cherished gift: a genuinely excellent higher education.
Neal Freyman is a senior history major. He can be reached at nfreyman3@gmail.com.
