1. Take a road trip – Most people end freshman year under the assumption that the world ends after Marshall Street. Now that you’re a sophomore who’s mastered Main and South Campus, hop in your buddy’s beat-up station wagon and go somewhere different for a weekend with your friends. Explore New York City. Eat flapjacks in Canada. Get drunk with an Amish guy. Whatever it is, make it fun and completely different from your day-to-day SU experience. There will be other weekends. But not other Amish guys.
2. Go to a suite party – Too many sophomores spend their weekends running around frat row and off-campus housing in search of a decent party while SU’s most underrated night scene rages on right under their nose: suite parties. Sure, your freshman double could only fit about a half-dozen people around a closet-door pong table before the room got over-crowded and your anal-retentive RA over-heard your iPod speaker, but a well-organized Watson suite can easily accommodate 25 patrons. Plus, you’ll find the average RA for upperclassman housing to be much more laid back than the freshman variety.
3. Befriend your neighbors – No group will ever replace the friends you make on your freshman floor, but that’s no excuse to ignore your sophomore neighbors. For all you know the kids on your floor are some of the coolest people you’ve ever met. Then again, they could also be part of some weird devil-worshipping cult learning community. You’ll never know unless you get to know them. (Though, as a precaution, check “no” under the “devil-worshipping cult” portion of your sophomore housing forms).
4. Go to the strip club – One trip to Paradise Found will either make you appreciate the girls at SU like never before, or make you wish they were all a little more outgoing. Regardless, it’ll give you a fresh perspective on life, and that’s why we all love to go to the strip club: to gain some perspective through mental reflection. And look at boobies.
5. Be nice to a freshman – Something strange happens to a lot of sophomores: they forget that they, too, were once freshmen who traveled in large packs, got lost on the way to class and got booted from house parties they tried to crash. Somehow, this amnesia breeds a form of condescending douchebaggery that manifests itself in loud, vulgar taunts toward these harmless first-years. What you should be doing is welcoming these freshmen on campus with open arms because without them, you would still be the low man on the totem pole.
