There are days I feel like I am in a fishbowl here in State College.

Park Avenue to Fairmont in between University Drive to Atherton is most of my world.

But campus did not always seem so manageable to me. My first night at Penn State I got lost walking from the creamery to Porter Hall, which is like not being able to find your way from your front door to your driveway.

Forty thousand students is not a number I can easily wrap my arms around and it still amazes me that I see people I know on my way to class each morning.

The numbers are not overwhelming to me. I found a way to keep the campus small and still reap the benefits of being around a lot of people.

Finding something you love to do and getting into it early will do wonders for your social life.

For me, it is The Daily Collegian. For one of my roommates it's Mock Trials. My guy friends all pledged fraternities and signed up for Intramural sports. Some ran for Undergraduate Student Government senate seats, some joined infamous activist groups.

However, the friends who didn't bother to join anything and said they would rather focus on their studies are those who are the most miserable.

They complain the school is too big, they complain they are bored.

They sit in their dorm rooms and stare and their computer, hoping something new will pop up on Facebook to occupy them.

My point is, getting involved in something you love is the first step to success in college.

It gives you experience that you could never get from a textbook.

Surprisingly classes get a lot easier when you have an edge on everyone else.

It shrinks the university's size down to a perfectly manageable number and when it comes time for you to apply for that much needed scholarship or much-desired job four years down the road, it will look like gold on your résumé.

I prefer to skip class to be in a basement on South Burrowes Street where daylight is unheard of and crime is the sunshine in my day.

I know people who get most of their pleasure while working in a bio-engineering lab or taking
a glass blowing class they don't get credit for.

Don't think you have a semester to test out the waters before you dive into something.

Most organizations love freshmen who are ready to jump right into things. It shows promise. It shows perseverance and tenacity.

You don't want to be the loser everyone talks about because you have become stuck to your computer chair. Get up and do something.