Is CSULB campus friendly to new students?

I have lived in Los Angeles for two-and-a-half years now, and it's been quite an adjustment. I grew up in a semi-rural area of Ohio, where people are pretty friendly and unabashedly real. If you smile at someone, you're guaranteed to get a smile in return, and if you ask how someone is doing, they'll tell you the truth, even if their life is falling apart.

But here in L.A. it's not quite like that. People aren't overly friendly (read "distant and suspicious”) and when they do seem friendly, it's often because they're putting on a good face "Oh, I'm doing great! (Actually, I've been out of work for six months, my boyfriend just left me, I have more debt than I can ever pay off, and I'm depressed most of the time.) But I'm just great! How are you?” As any transplants to L.A. know, this can be hard to get used to. At home, I wave or smile to most people I pass, whether I know them or not. In L.A. my smiles are either completely ignored or returned with glances of suspicion that seem to say, "What do you want? No one smiles here unless they're trying to get something from you.”

Yet, I still had high hopes for CSULB to be a friendly place. From the one afternoon I'd spent in Long Beach, the city seemed somewhat family-oriented, and people didn't seem so emotionally distant. Finally, since a university is made up of a bunch of people who are in pursuit of the same thing — an education — I figured there was hope for some commonality among us.

With all these expectations in my optimistic little mind, it is almost unnecessary to say that I suffered disappointments. But I also had pleasant surprises. One of the first things I noticed about CSULB is how amazingly helpful the faculty and staff were. During my undergrad career I got used to waiting in lines and being transferred to five or six different people before I got what I needed. However, at CSULB, almost every staff or faculty person I met went out of their way to answer my questions. This was like a breath of fresh air to my bureaucracy-wearied mind.

The student body was a bit of a different story. I, with my Midwest smile on, expected everyone in my classes to start talking to me right away: here was where I hit my first big disappointment. Everyone just seemed to sit there, staring at the empty blackboard. Pinning my poor, disappointed heart to my sleeve, I turned to the person sitting next to me and tried to strike up a conversation. To my great delight, I was not rebuffed with silence or a suspicious gaze! They actually talked back, and not only that, but other classmates joined our conversation, too! "Ah,” I thought, "they're not all stuck-up, just insecure, like me.”

Since that first day, I've met plenty of other people who are willing to reciprocate, and even sometimes initiate, friendly conversation. Thanks to all the CSULB staff and students who have made the beginning of this semester a joyful and exciting time for me, instead of a stressful, lonely season. Here's to a semester full of new friendships and new knowledge! Cheers!

Sarah Mebasser is a graduate student in English at CSULB.