Freshman year: a time for new friends, new experiences, and food. Yes, food, the freshman 15, meal swipes, four dining halls and a convenience store at every corner. It’s just as much a part of the experience as tailgating, singing the fight song and wearing blue and white.
I’ve experienced this first hand this semester. No longer do I wait expectantly for my mom to return from the grocery store—I go to Redifer commons every day of the week for as many meals as my I.D. card will swipe in for. Sometimes I even venture off campus to one of the dozens of options on College Avenue and beyond.
The best part is that this food is actually good. Great, even. Sure, I miss home cooking once in a while, but I forget all about Mom’s meatloaf when it’s Taco Tuesday at the South buffet. It fills me up and I enjoy it.
I could spend the rest of this post giving you a list of my favorite state college eateries, give you some recipes for the best dorm room meal on a budget or give you some crazy sandwich order to try next time you’re at subway.
But I’m not qualified to do any of that. I’m just an incredibly hungry 18-year-old who now finds himself among several high-quality food stops. Instead, I want to warn you.
Because I’ve taken advantage of the endless buffets and salad bars and have left these establishments with a food baby that actually looked like a real baby more times than I can count. I’ve dozed off in my political science class several times because of a post-lunch food coma. And most recently, my friends laugh and gasp when I set my overflowing tray at my spot at the table. So I’ve compiled a list of helpful hints I’ve picked up over the past few months that will hopefully help you avoid the pitfalls of the college eating life. I’ve tacked them up on my wall, but they rarely stop me from going all out at the dinner table.
- One bowl of Ice Cream, even if it’s death by chocolate night and you ran earlier.
- Don’t hit the HUB buffets before class—chick fillet is great until you have to digest it and attempt to focus at the same time.
- Lock yourself in your room when you read the fliers for “free pizza in the lobby at 9 p.m.”
- Remember that the number on the Kiwi scale is how much more you’ll weigh after eating it.
- That care package from grandma was nice, but she doesn’t understand that fresh baked goods are your enemies right now, not your friends.
- Salad is great, but a fiddlehead salad contains about as much roughage as a tree and is therefore dangerous territory.
- “Fat Free” doesn’t mean “have three.”
- It’s healthy to eat a lot every once in a while.
- And when I say a lot, I really mean a lot.
- Like complete binge, thanksgiving-came-early sized meals.
Stay hungry.