The Weirdest Part About Finishing Freshman Year
· Paige Karchmar · Reflection / Branding
I realized something strange this week while walking across Speedway, and it turned into a thought about how brands actually become part of people's lives.
I realized something strange this week while walking across Speedway.
I passed one of the orientation groups touring campus and found myself listening to the questions people were asking. They were exactly the kinds of questions I remember having when I first arrived at UT. Which dining hall is actually worth the walk? How early do you need to get to the PCL during finals? Why does everyone talk about the Drag like it's a major landmark?
The funny part wasn't the questions themselves. It was realizing that I knew all the answers.
A year ago, I would have been the person asking them. Now I'm apparently the person answering them in my head.
When the New Stops Feeling New
That realization stuck with me because it wasn't really about orientation. It was the first time I noticed that UT doesn't feel new anymore.
When I moved in last August, everything felt significant. Walking down Speedway felt like an experience. The Tower looked enormous. I took photos of random parts of campus that I thought I'd want to remember later. I checked maps constantly because every building seemed impossibly far away from every other building, and somehow every class looked like it was located in a string of random letters.
Now I walk across campus without thinking about it. I'll tell someone where to meet me and never stop to consider how I know exactly how to get there. Somewhere between sorority rush, football season, midterms, spring semester, and finals, UT stopped feeling like a place I was figuring out and became a place I belong.
The strange thing is that I can't tell you when that happened.
Familiarity Slips By Unnoticed
Nobody really notices familiarity while it's happening. You notice the first day. You notice the exciting day. You notice the difficult day. But the moment something starts feeling normal usually slips by completely unnoticed.
I think that's why the end of freshman year feels so weird.
People always say college goes fast, but honestly, most of the year didn't feel fast at all. Finals felt long. Some classes felt long. Waiting for grades definitely felt long. The change only becomes obvious when you compare where you are now to where you started.
Last August, I would have stopped to take a picture of the Tower. This week, I walked past it three times without even looking up.
Why That's Actually the Point
And weirdly, I think that's the point.
The things that become part of your life eventually stop demanding your attention. They become routine. They become familiar. They become yours.
What This Has to Do With Brands
The only reason I'm connecting this to marketing is because brands often think the goal is getting noticed. And getting noticed matters. But that's only the beginning.
The harder challenge is becoming something people come back to after the novelty wears off. After they've stopped paying special attention. After you've become part of their routine.
Because the strongest relationships usually aren't built when something feels new.
They're built after it doesn't.
And apparently that's also how you know freshman year is over.