Unlearn What You've Been Told

Good day prefrosh!
I hope that you find this blog well, and that you have no predispositions about MIT, or any part of campus. I'm starting this blog with the hope of cleaning your minds of the kind of deceit that has been subliminally implanted by other bloggers. I'll begin with some basics.

At MIT, there is a grand unity, above and beyond all subtle differences. We are MIT. We are the best of the best (this includes you, prefrosh: you have been accepted and will soon be assimilated). Nobody at MIT is "weird". If you say that someone is weird, then it is in fact you who are weird. If you say that you are "scared" of someplace on campus, it is merely because you have not taken the time to try to understand them, and thus, you have failed at your duties as a student. As a student, you must remember that the campus belongs to you. It has become you, and you have become it. One thing that you will not be told by bloggers, etc, is that at MIT, it is your life. You already know that you will live here, learn here, sleep here, more than likely eat here, but you will also play here, socialize here, and fight here. This is your study, your bed, your kitchen, your game room and your battle ground. You will love life at MIT, and you will hate it. The one lesson that must be learned before you can succeed is this: try harder. If you are having trouble in a class, don't immediately go and blame it on a professor (like some people, especially those with big egos do) but try harder. Get all the resources you need. No one goes through MIT alone. You use the resources offered to you because you must in order to survive.

There are some at MIT that try to hide the fact that they are social and scholarly failures behind a veil of alcohol, fake friends, drug abuse, and pathetic attempts to be popular by fitting into the mainstream. Please, for your own sake and for the sake of the institute, don't do this. Be who you are, because that's who MIT admitted. Don't become a lemming, don't become a clone of your living group, or your frat, or sorority. Don't allow people to ostracize you because you don't want to live on a particular part of campus, or because you do. If you face bigotry, if you face lies and opinionated chauvinists, turn your back on them. They are not welcome at MIT, and you should not feel that you need to empathize with them in order to fit in. There are vast numbers of people at MIT who will not tell such latent falsehoods.

I hope I have helped at least a few of you. I hope you feel a little bit better about your decision to come to MIT, and if you haven't decided yet, perhaps this will help you to. Remember, I'm here to answer any questions, or to offer any other advice. More posts to come!

~Till