There's one thought I distinctly remember crossing my mind when I arrived on the University Park campus in August of 2003.

"Holy crap, this place is huge," were the words that repeatedly found a home somewhere in my cerebrum.

I was an 18-year-old "adult," a recent high school graduate and a Penn State freshman.

And I had no idea where Ewing Hall was.

But after a few hours, and with the help of my parents and a few uniformed police officers, I did locate my home in South Halls and proceeded to move everything that I could fit in our family van into my dorm room.

Soon I found the dining commons. Then I stumbled upon the Student Bookstore.

Eventually, a few weeks and a lot of dirty clothes later, I located the laundry room.

However, the discovery of that first week that's had the most prominent effect on my life was a blue box at the Allen Street bus stop.

It contained a stack of free newspapers by the name of The Daily Collegian.

Blue boxes still hold a special place in my heart.

You see, The Collegian is the student newspaper at Penn State. We are the publication that cares about what students care about.

As you begin your own journey as a college student, please take advantage of one of the greatest resources available to students at this university: the student newspaper.

We are a newspaper published by students and written for students. We are independent, which means that we are under no obligation to the administration or any other larger organization.

And I like to think we do a darn good job of presenting the news that is important to you.

All of those reasons are why we have sent you a copy of our last issue from the summer semester as well as this year's edition of Fresh Start, a magazine we publish specifically for incoming freshmen at Penn State.

During the fall and spring semesters, we publish daily on every day that Penn State holds classes.

We have regular sections including our entertainment magazine called Venues every Thursday and a Sci/Health section on Tuesdays.

During the fall you can look forward to extensive coverage of Penn State Nittany Lions football as well as the other sports at Penn State.

Our daily issues will include stories about tuition increases, new downtown businesses, greek life, crime in State College and many other topics that concern students like you.

While we do print state, national and international stories, our main focus is to find local news that is important to our largest readership, Penn State students.

But this is not only our newspaper. As a reader, this is your newspaper too.

And we want to hear from you, whether on our Opinions Page in a letter to the editor or by calling and telling us about an event on campus that you think we should know about.

As you grow accustomed to life at Penn State, you might notice the blue boxes are fairly common around campus and downtown.

You can find us at the bus stop, the library, the dining commons, the residence halls and in many on-campus buildings.

You can even join the staff yourself. Just look for our advertisements in the paper at the beginning of the semester telling you when, where and how to try out.

But if nothing else, please read us.

Just don't do the crossword puzzle in class.