I was pretty sure last week was the week we got back from Winter Break. And now, somehow, April is coming to a close. I’m not entirely sure how time managed to do this — perhaps it teamed with the weather to trick us into thinking it was still winter. Either way, it’s hard not to notice how time has flown these past few months.

For most students, this means preparing for graduation, work, moving, graduate school and many other chains of responsibility I plan to avoid for several years. For me, this simply means it’s time to reflect on what I’ve learned throughout my first year at San Diego State.

Something I’ve encountered often lately is the idea that one year in college makes us experts in school, San Diego happenings, the student body and just about any “life lesson” you can think of. Somehow, a year away from parents and high school has managed to teach us freshmen one major lesson: We know everything.

When high school students come to tour the campus and we’re stopped for questions, most of us roll our eyes and begrudgingly answer, because we always know the answer. We know where to go on the weekends, because we’ve been everywhere anyone could possibly go in San Diego. We know which restaurants have the best food, because we’re regulars at all of them. We know which professors have easy classes, which are funny and which are worth taking again. Ask us anything. We know it all. Except for bars, don’t ask us about those.

We call San Diego our home because it has been for almost a whole year.

I realized this recently when I had a friend visit for a tour. Suddenly, I had all this extra knowledge. I could tell her about programs for any given major. I could tell her about class sizes and how well the professors instructed. I could tell her what everyone did in San Diego on weekdays, weekends and for special events. I could tell her what to expect, not only at SDSU, but at any college. Because apparently, not only am I an expert on this campus, I’m actually an expert on every campus that’s ever existed. Almost a year of school will do that for someone, you know.

I’m not entirely sure how the majority of the SDSU population feels about this. They, who have much more knowledge I’m sure, have mercifully granted us free reign to tell everyone else how much we know. It’s as if they collectively decided to let all of us freshmen get our excitement out of our systems and talk about what experts we are, before realizing we don’t actually know too much of anything. That is where they take control. Or perhaps upperclassmen just don’t care much.

I’m not entirely sure if I’m alone in these thoughts, or if anyone else has noticed this phenomenon lately. But it doesn’t really matter. Because I’m probably an expert about that too.

—Bree Lutjens is a public relations freshman.