Oh, first-month-of-school-Gusties. I’ve missed you dearly these past ten months. Your willingness to lend a helpful hand, sit with a lonely person at dinner or smile as we pass each other on the sidewalk is a welcome sight after such a long hiatus.

For now, smiles abound and you are the friendliest creatures imaginable. But every year, something in you clicks, and that mood dies.

You start wearing perpetual frowns, and stop caring about anyone, but yourselves.  You start leaving your dirty dishes all over the Campus Center, forcing me to clean up after you. (I’ve already started to notice this trend beginning again.  Take your own dishes back … Please?)

Maybe it’s your busy schedules and heavy course loads. Maybe you’ve been sexiled by your roommate one time too many (or weren’t sexiled and wish you had been). Maybe it’s the cold winter months that harden your spirits until summer. Maybe you’re all upset that Peter Jackson has taken this long to make The Hobbit movie(s), and the only thing that will make you happy is doubling the length of your annual Lord of the Rings marathons.

Whatever the culprit, we’re all going to turn into terrifying ogres again this year, if history is allowed to repeat itself. We’re going to stay cooped up in our rooms all winter, complaining to friend A about friend B, and then later, complaining to friend B about friend A. Then when spring comes, we’ll emerge from our residences, but not from our bitterness.

This year, I say defy history. Fight the inner-ogre. Emerge victorious and still smiling. Don’t surrender to whatever it is that’s trying to drag you down into negativity and constant unhappiness.

For the past three years, older and wiser Gusties have been encouraging my positivity and the evolution of the Gustavus community. Now they’re gone, and we have to grow up and lead future Gusties to a brighter place.

Don’t get me wrong, we have plenty of reasons to be upset, both inside and outside of Gustavus. Some take up arms against these unpleasant situations while others sink into spite or apathy.

Be a part of the former. If you’re upset about something, strive to change it. If you have nothing to be upset about, then you need to do a bit of research and pick something to be upset about because there are plenty of things that need to be fixed.

Whichever group you’re a part of, still remember to smile (and smile often). Leave angst for the younger ones and just be happy.

Smile at each other on the sidewalk. Meet new people. Build the Gustavus community.

And please, HOLD THE F***ING DOOR OPEN.