We descended en masse on campus at the end of August, all 397 of us. We arrived in minivans packed full with boxes and suitcases and microwaves and copies of Mendel’s Dwarf, with parents who tearfully made our beds and picked lint off of our shoulders while reminding us to call home and be safe, from all corners of the globe (South Korea and Ghana and Jamaica and Canada being only a few ports of locale for the Class of 2005).

Some of us endured Orientation Adventure, all of us endured Chirp Challenges and writing placement tests and Convocation. And when the dust settled–when the Christmas lights and Monet posters had been hung, when the first shower in the co-ed bathroom had been successfully taken, when the first piece of fruit from Frank was stolen, we were left to look at one another and realize that we are, in fact, college freshmen. Now what?

Looking forward to the next four (or for some of us, five) years is a bit daunting. Just four short years ago we were freshmen–in high school, in awe of all the kids who had already gone through puberty and who could drive and who (gasp!) drank alcohol.

Some of us came here fairly resolute in what we want to do with the rest of our lives. Genevieve Carpio ’05 knows that she wants to be in grad school at Yale, studying science. Coming from the neighboring town of Pomona, Carpio was familiar with the Claremont Colleges and chose to attend Pomona "for the academic opportunities available as well as the resources provided by all five colleges."

Lori Brown ’05 chose Pomona specifically for its Media Studies program. Dreaming eventually of becoming a screenwriter, Brown plans to take screenwriting and movie-making classes as well as lots of English classes in the next four years. As for goals while at Pomona, Brown wants to "have learned a lot, to have found a community I can be part of." Her greatest fear is not finding a job after Pomona, because she knows that the movie business isn’t easy to break into.

Still others of us have a veritable grocery list of subjects we want to dive into. It seems Michael Gechter ’05 wants to study half of the subjects offered. "There’s so many things… history, philosophy, english, french, art history, psychology, art, sociology, religion…" he recited.

Fellow freshman Mark VanDonge is also undecided, though he does know that, "I want to be prepared for some job. . .or maybe grad school. . .and go to a Dodger game at some point." VanDonge does know that he wants to study abroad in Spain and travel around Europe while enrolled at Pomona.

And then there’s Nate Tate ’05. Finding people infinitely interesting, Nate explains his approach to making friends as,"it’s like I’m stuck in a Where’s Waldo and I have to keep meeting people. He’s a good man, that Waldo." Tate has no idea yet what he wants to study — he "would like to become a composer" (though he doesn’t yet compose or play instruments or even read music, he feels "the vibe within"), "a firefighter…I want to major in neurotechnology. Or maybe cognitive science. Or psychology." Though he’s a bit unclear on what he wants to spend the rest of his life learning about, Tate does know that the people here are nice, and "they have pretty good vegan food and no matter how hard I try, I will always hate writing papers."

Though our interests are different, most of us picked Pomona because of the great weather, good academics, and small school. VanDonge also liked the "really nice financial aid package" while Sandor Prater ’05 noticed when he visited that "the people were friendly. I’m not used to strangers being friendly."

So what is in store for us? As Gechter noted wryly, "College is the last time we can really do what we’re interested in…where I can do things I enjoy without any strings attached." We may be impressionable, we may be naïve, we may get lost trying to find our way to Honnold, but we’re ready and willing to find out what this college experience is all about.