Freshman Horror Stories

Anxious feelings. High expectations. New people, new surroundings. These are only a few aspects of someone’s freshman year of college. Most upperclassmen give advice to the newcomers, telling them to “just be yourselves” and to “have fun.”  While freshman year really is all that a person makes it, it can be quite terrifying as well. Some freshman have stories that magnify the worst case scenario during freshman year.    

Caitlen Richinson, a freshman Theatre major, enjoying her second semester, recalled a story from her first semester of college.       

“It was a morning I will never forget,” she said. “I was getting ready for class and I decided that I was going to be a smart, prepared student and eat some breakfast.”        

She then went on to explain that as she took her first bite out of the granola bar that she had excitingly picked, she heard a strange crack. Looking to find the source, Richinson experienced everyone’s worst nightmare when she looked down at the ground.

“My two front teeth had completely fallen out. Two weeks before I had a dental surgery, so my teeth must not have been completely healed. I was in shock, I didn’t know what to do,” she said.

As Richinson panicked, she called her parents to help the situation. Her dad scheduled her an appointment at the dentist the next day to solve the epidemic. Richinson figured her next move was to go tell her professor that she would not be able to make it to class the next day.

“I had my mouth covered when I was talking to her,” Richinson said. “When she asked why I was missing class, I just moved my hand and smiled. Then I just started bawling my eyes out.”

Her  professor was understanding, and let her skip the class as long as she needed. The good news was that the dentist ended Richinson’s horror when he gave her two fake teeth. Now a person would not even be able to tell the difference. This true example of a freshman horror story is not the only one that exists on the WT campus.

Ethan Chase, a performance major who is also entering in his second semester of college, tells a story of every college student’s fear. He had a class called script analysis. They were given an assignment to do a full analysis on a play, and his ended up being 63 pages long.        

“I had worked at least a month on this project,” Chase said. “It was one of the hardest things I have ever done.”    

He detailed the stress, tears, and blood that had gone into the making of this long project. The night before the paper was due, Chase got onto his computer to turn the finished work in. However, he could not find the file to do so.

“I was calm at first, thinking it had to be in there somewhere,” Chase said.

However, to his horror, it wasn’t. He explained that he had restarted his computer a couple days before this, and must not have saved his project in the process.

“Everything was lost. All I was thinking was that this could not be happening to me. I was completely stressed out to the max,” Chase said.      

He had no choice but to stay up that entire night to completely redo the project from scratch.

“I was up until 5:30 in the morning, and I still had to go through all of my classes that day,” Chase said. 

His late night paid off, however, because he got the paper turned in by the time it was due. As people go on through college, they may forget some moments, but it is proven that they don’t forget the embarrassing moments.

Zach Perrin, a junior Musical Theatre major at WT, thought back on his college career and remembered a story from his freshman year.

“I normally waited until late at night to shower when no one was in there because I really liked to sing in the shower,” he said.

One night, when he was belting out some notes, he didn’t hear someone come in. Continuing his singing, he had no clue that someone was listening in.

“Next thing I know, I heard another voice. Whoever it was that walked in, started singing with me,” Perrin said.

Together, they continued the song and ended on a note together. 

“Nothing was said, I still have no clue who it was. It was embarrassing, but also pretty awesome,” he said.

Starmie Bennett, a junior  at WT, also has a seemingly embarrassing story during her freshman year of school. Bennett’s first class of her college career was at 9 a.m. in the Fine Arts Complex. She decided that she needed to arrive as early as possible.

“I just wanted to be a good student and show up early enough to get a good seat in the class,” Bennett said.

At 8:30 a.m., Bennett walked into the class and saw that despite arriving early, there were already multiple people there and not many seating options. She also noticed that there was a writing assignment already on the board.

“At that point I was dreading every college class, because I realized how hard college obviously was going to be,” Bennett said.

Next thing she knew, the professor slapped a syllabus in her face. Diligently reading it through, she noticed something strange. She realized that she was in an upper level class, instead of her basic freshman course. Immediately, caught up in a panic, she raised her hand and asked the professor if she was in the wrong class.

“What a rookie move,” Bennett laughed.

 She exited the room, and sat down accepting defeat. However, just twenty minutes later, the class that she had accidentally walked into, was letting out. Finally, she realized that she had actually walked into an 8 a.m. class thirty minutes late.

“Take away from this experience: You can’t arrive at a college class until at least 10 minutes before it actually starts,” Bennett said.

While all of these horror stories occurred either last year or a couple years ago, West Texas A&M Alumni, DeAnne Roberts, proves that freshman still had a hard time back in her day.

Roberts attended WT when it was still called West Texas State University, and was a freshman in 1981. She describes herself walking to class, “adorned with 80’s big hair, bright makeup, and high heels.” When she finally got seated, she glanced around the room until she noticed a man.

“He was the hottest guy I had ever seen in my life and he was looking right back at me,” Roberts said.

Completely frazzled, she tried to decide what to do. She thought about giving him the “eye”, or just acting as if she did not even notice him. When the professor started talking, she finally just decided to pay attention in class and try not to think about it. When the class concluded, she rose from her chair, gathered her backpack, and strolled towards the first stairwell. As she made her way down, she became increasingly aware of his presence behind her.

“I know his eyes were captivated by my every move. I put my shoulders back, sucked my stomach in, and continued my descent,” Roberts said.

About a quarter of the way down, her left heel suddenly caught on the edge of the step. In an instant, her backside and chance of snagging Mr. WT were all up in the air. For a full minute and a half, her body toppled and flopped as she fell, taking down several other students along the way. In an abrupt second, she found herself sprawled in a heap, on the ground, shocked at what had just happened. All the sudden a hand reached out of the crowd and pulled her to her feet. It was him.

“Can you dance any better than you can walk?” he said, cracking a huge smile.

Roberts explained that his voice was like a “man-angel.” She had fallen on top of two sorority girls, angering them, but he came to her rescue.

These stories all give an accurate description of what anyone’s freshman year of college can be like. However, they also show that even if the worst of the worst happens, life will always go on. While it may seem horrible at the time, it can be something to laugh at in the end, and who knows, maybe it will result in meeting Mr. WT.

Hailee Cox

Staff Writer