I was astonished to learn upon returning to school this year that first-years would be prohibited from bringing cars onto campus. Thinking back to my introductory year at Brandeis, I thought of all the times I needed to escape a campus that can often feel much smaller than its 235 acres. My ticket off campus in suburban Waltham has always been my 2001 Toyota. But after more than two years at this university, I surprise myself to say, I suppose the first-years can live without personal modes of conveyance.Brandeis does offer a few ways to get away. Public Safety provides convenient van service all around Waltham and bus service to Boston and Cambridge Thursday through Sunday. The commuter rail, which has a stop on South Street across from the Village dormitory, provides transportation everyday to Cambridge and Boston as well. So escaping is certainly not a problem, but perhaps taking cars away from new students will offer greater encouragement for them to stay on campus.

I had oodles of fun my first year at Brandeis, but it took me until I had a car here to realize it. In dreaming of driving away - a means of escape I had employed ever since receiving a license in my hopelessly boring New York City suburb - I often overlooked the outlets to have fun on campus.

I think at times, I even tried to avoid having fun on campus in some insane attempt to prove my friends right that Brandeis is lame. I drove to all the way to Amherst, Mass. quite a few times to see my friend at Hampshire College, a school with a decidedly cooler image than Brandeis. Hampshire is certainly fun, but it is no more fun than Brandeis; it is simply different. Perhaps if I had not had a car I would have realized sooner than all the college fun I could ever want I could find right here at Brandeis.

First-years now, however, have no reason to waste time dreaming of getting behind the wheel or to spend hours begging their parents to let them drive a car up to campus. Certainly many new students will befriend upperclassmen with cars to fulfill their automotive fancies, but it is my hope that the residents of North and Massell will instead look inwardly to find their fun with each other.

Being a junior, I feel I now have the right to reminisce about my first year of college. From what I can remember, many of my finest moments were times when it would have been unwise for me to be negotiating the roads. Far be it from me to encourage first-years to embrace a Bacchanalian lifestyle, but the example is nonetheless relevant. Running around this campus from dorm to dorm, party to party and event to event is just as fun here as it is at any other college. We are at college to run around and live out the waning days of our collective childhood in grand style; you can't do that driving in traffic on the Mass Pike.

I have in fact given up on the Massachusetts Turnpike, that horribly consistent expressway that runs predictably through the center of the state from Sturbridge to Boston. I have lived most of my year in Waltham since 2001 and I have abused the Mass Pike to the point that I have no idea what exists between our exit 14 and the exits for Cambridge and Copley Square. For that matter, I have practically no idea how to get around Boston. Now that I think about it, seeing the city from my driver's side window has taught me nothing about a city, which by now I should identify with, at least a little bit. Because of these realizations, I have decided to join the first-years in their car-lessness ...at least in some sense.

I would never give up my car -- I'm not crazy -- but I will vow to at least try to give up driving into Boston. As I mentioned, I can easily take the commuter rail or the Brandeis Shuttle. I will force myself to walk around Boston, Cambridge, and while I'm at it, Waltham too. I will have wasted four years of opportunity should I leave the Boston area in 2005 with no knowledge of my current home.

So here's to the first-years, though they may believe they are suffering without their cars. Know at least that one upperclassman is partially joining you in your struggle, and that we'll all be better off for it in the end. We'll have a greater sense of our school, our community and those cities down the Charles, and leave college fulfilled.

And by the way, if anyone needs a ride anywhere, give me a call.