the sandbox

Dear Class of 2012,

Welcome to Duke University. Your new home. The Gothic Wonderland. The home of the Blue Devils. Eruditio et Religio and all that.

Inevitably, you are excited. Finally, you will be among your true peers-a group of scholars from a higher echelon of genetic selection. You'll be with kids who share your dreams of Johns Hopkins medical school and similarly appreciate your ultra-indie taste in music. Vampire Weekend is so awesome. Better yet, you'll have four years to forge bonds with your BFFs for the rest of your life. You can share the joy of watching Mike Krzyzewski cap off your freshman year with a National Championship. You'll tent for two months in the grueling Carolina winter but have the satisfaction of watching Duke trounce a dominant Carolina squad in Cameron. And LDOC '09-that's Last Day of Classes for anyone who didn't know-well, that will just be awesome. Best LDOC ever.

In fact, when you arrive on East Campus that first day, everything will be different. You'll go to your first totally awesome section party on West Campus. After three too many Busch Lites, you'll bus-surf your way back to East Campus and end up at Shooters II. Heck, you might even get in the cage. And it will be awesome and you will want to go back every weekend. With that buzz not worn off yet, you and your new best friends from Giles will go vandalize some East Campus bench and make it look like the kids in Brown did it. So original. No one to come through Duke has been or will be quite as cool, quite as clever. Class of 2012. Best class ever.

So enjoy your first two semesters in the Gothic Wasteland. Just remember to savor that Duke idyll you have in your mind right now, because as soon as you get back your first Econ 51 exam, you'll know everything has changed. This is, after all, only school.