Facing graduation, I’ve started to look around campus. I’ve begun to look at all the things I’ve wanted to do while at State but haven’t. I’m not talking about anything deep or existential here. I’m talking about things like painting the Free Expression Tunnel or taking a beekeeping class.

Student Government has put together a list of 52 things to do before graduating. The list isn’t perfect, there are some activities I have no interest in, like the Polar Plunge. But from time to time I’ll go through and try to knock off what is listed. This week, I crossed camping out for basketball tickets off my list.

I hate to admit it, but I’ve only been to one N.C. State basketball game while in college. I think my poor attendance has something to do with the lack of tailgating. Whatever the case may be, when some friends told me about Campout , I jumped at the opportunity. I wasn’t really doing it for a ticket—come to think of it, I don’t even know if I got a ticket. I did it because I knew it was my last chance to experience a tradition of State.

If you’ve never been to one, Campout is a straightforward event. If you camp out for the entire night around Reynolds Coliseum, you’ll get a ticket to the UNC game. In the morning your sleep deprivation is supposed to be mitigated by the pride you feel for taking part; however, my morning was a bit different. In the morning I realized how far removed I am from my freshman year.

To make a gross and unsubstantiated generalization here, most of the people at Campout were underclassmen. I don’t mean to be condescending; it’s truly a blessing the event attracts underclassmen. I could not imagine the event if its base were seniors. If my friends and I were a decent sample, the tone of the event would be entirely different.

My friends and I spent the start of the night cursing the cold, the rain and each other, but when we began to look around and were astonished at what we saw. People were running around tossing a football or Frisbee, taking group pictures, and starting WOLF—PACK chants at four in the morning. Everyone there had a smile on their face.

I felt a little like the Grinch looking down on Whoville during Christmas, with a major difference: I loved what I saw. I fondly remember what it was like to be on that freshman-year level, that mindset in which getting up at five for ticket distributions was a necessity, when the game was bigger than the tailgate, when N.C. State Athletics was the glue holding your group together.

As the night carried on, I began to embrace the whole atmosphere. For once this year I didn’t feel like a degenerate for wearing sweats out of the house. I didn’t feel gluttonous for eating eight slices of pizza – thanks, Valentine Commons. Minus the sirens blaring to wake everyone up every two hours, I have few complaints. It was a great to revisit freshman year.

There’s a certain magic to those first years that we lose as time goes on. We move off-campus, our friends move off too and we find ourselves only going to campus for class.  We stop participating in ridiculous events like Campout. However, these events are part of what college is all about. They’re events that bind us together in a way not found on Fayetteville Street or in class. Events like these bring us together as a community.

If you’re also feeling a distance from where you were freshman to where you are now, try crossing something off Student Government’s 52 things to do list. It’s a great list of all the fun college has to offer that we often lose sight of.