Everything in life is luck.

To whomever is reading this blog, welcome. You have stumbled upon the blog of a freshman at Oregon State University, perchance by luck, and for the next year I will be describing things that happen around OSU that I feel are blog worthy.

In the upcoming entry’s I will be describing myself, but for this first blog I would like to show you all the infamous tradition at OSU called convocation. Now while a convocation may not be OSU’s idea they have taken the average convocation to an entirely new level and made it something that is powered by orange.

Convocation can loosely be described as a calling together. For some schools convocation is a meeting of alumnus whom gather and debate about what they want done to the school. While for others it is a gathering of Freshman and a chance to sign the matricula, a ceremonial parchment that has been signed by alumnus and current students alike. Regardless of past traditions OSU has taken the convocation ceremony and expanded and molded it until it resembles no other convocations. As the 3,500 or so freshman converge onto the MU quad a bit of chaos insures as students try to locate the gigantic orange banner with their college’s name on it. Once found, and after all the pictures are taken, bagpipe music fills the air as we all departed for gill Colosseum one college after another. Along the way to Gill we are taken through a tunnel of of sororities and fraternities all clapping for us, as if we are the most important people in the world. Which, truth be told, we are because without these new freshman, a.k.a. a new source of income, the Greek houses could not function; but i digress.

As we file into the seats of Gill, there before us are the banners of the colleges, this time in an array of colors, the president of ASOSU, Associated Students of Oregon State University, the president of Oregon State University, the Vice Provost of Student Affairs, and of course a motivational speaker. While that may come off as a bit of a stereotype for most orientation programs this speaker was like nothing I had ever heard before. The reason why this man was so effective was because he has lived with bipolar disorder all his life and was able to talk to us about mental health issues with sincerity in his tone and a hopeful look for us all in his eyes.

After the speakers had spoken, and the flags had been presented and retired we followed the marching band back to the MU quad for a minimal dinner of teriyaki chicken as we all milled about the quad as clubs, Greek houses, and even a few sports teams tempted us with candy in the hopes that one of us would stop and take interest in their activities.

As the weeks go on I will have time to describe myself, hopefully I will even be able to throw in a few pictures. If you found any part of this helpful or amusing then please pass the link on preferably to a high school student still looking for a college, but anyone is more then welcome to glean what they can from my blog.
PEACE
sam