The first semester of college is full of emotions. Particularly, there are a lot of thoughts running through the heads of freshmen in the first few week of class. They are in a different and unfamiliar place, and all they keep hearing is the upperclassmen talking about everything that they missed from Fort Collins over the summer: Horsetooth, hiking, live music and window slices dipped in spicy ranch from Cosmo’s. With such a large amount of information going into their ears, freshmen are eager to start really experiencing college, and the emotions definitely run high. Here is a list of songs that perfectly sum up the feelings associated with the first weeks of the first semester of the first year of college:

“If You’re Happy and You Know It” by Dr. Alfred B. Smith

The freshmen are happy and they know it. Walking around campus, one can see the happiness radiating off of them from deep within their souls. There is not a care in the world because they have successfully obtained a high school diploma, been accepted to their dream school and are now living out that dream as a college student. The high from summer has not quite worn off yet, so it seems as though basically everything makes them happy. Rightfully so, I might add, because everything that they experience contributes to why the next four years will hopefully go down in history as some of the best years of their lives, and that is definitely something to be happy about.

“I’m So Excited” by the Pointer Sisters

“I’m so excited, and I just can’t hide it.” I distinctly remember singing these lines on more than one occasion leading up to move-in day freshman year. There are so many things for the freshmen to be excited about as new students on campus. They’re getting to know a new area, meeting a million different people and stuffing their faces with free food in the dining halls all the while trying to shove their entire lives into a box of a room. But regardless of how much space they may have, or lack thereof, knowing that their new roomie could very likely be one of their best friends for life is just another piece in the emotional puzzle of excitement.

“Cooler Than Me” by Mike Posner

Fort Collins is cool, CSU is cool and football games are cool; Therefore, the individuals participating in these cool things also feel cool. This is the case especially when those individuals are freshmen. I remember my freshman year thinking that I was the coolest person alive and that nobody was on my level. They are on a big campus with a lot of people, seeing new things, going to parties with people who are not in their teens and making this city their home. All of this feels really cool, and that’s because it is.

“Free” by Zac Brown Band

Freedom: the biggest, most prominent emotion running through the freshman dorms at the start of a new school year. There are no more parents telling you what to do, no more worrying about having to be home before curfew and best of all, no more having to do the dishes every night after dinner. To add to the freedom is the fact that they are living on your own, there are no bills to be paid, they don’t have to cook for themselves and they don’t even have to clean their own bathroom. Freshman are quite literally “free as [they’ll] ever be.”

The bottom line is being a freshman is fun. Actually, being in college in general is fun. From what I hear, we’re going to miss it very dearly when it is all over. So to all you college students, freshman or not, never stop feeling happy, excited, cool and free. It gets hard and tiring; That’s for sure. But hopefully, when all is said and done, you will be singing “man, I love college.”