After months of anticipation for the fall semester, Penn State was buzzing yesterday as fall classes began.

The sidewalks were filled with people walking shoulder to shoulder, and there was a certain energy that campus hadn’t felt since March 2020.

Everyone has something they’re looking forward to with in-person classes and events being back. More often than not, they’re the little things that count. With that said, here’s what our staff is looking forward to in a (mostly) normal semester:

Frankie Marzano: Talking To The Person Sitting Next To Me In Class

One of my favorite things about the in-person class era was the relationships that I made in the lecture halls. However, I felt like I didn’t get an opportunity to make any with Zoom classes. Having a casual conversation with the person sitting next to me is how I formed so many of the friendships that I did two years ago. Now that in-person classes are back, I am looking forward to the casual chit-chat that makes every class much more bearable.

Otis Lyons: Walking To Class

Before the pandemic, I didn’t realize just how underrated walking to class was. What seemed like such a mundane thing became severely missed once in-person classes were stripped from me. Don’t get me wrong, there were certain perks of doing class from bed. But I am so very happy to get to walk through campus and chat with friends or catch up with those I haven’t seen for a whole pandemic.

Matt DiSanto: On-Campus Cereal Bars

There’s nothing — nothing — better than a good deal, and that’s exactly what I get out of using cereal bars in the dining halls. Sure, Pollock charges me a few bucks to get in and eat my breakfast. But you better believe I’m stuffing my face with cereal until I’m full. Better yet, I’m getting my damn money’s worth.

The pandemic shut my favorite self-service tradition down, but we’re back in action now. If you need to find me, look near the Frosted Flakes or Golden Grahams dispensers. The odds are in your favor.

Larkin Richards: Awkward Silence In Person

Penn State has always made me look forward, never behind. I look forward to games, classes, friends, events, and even the snow because of its beauty. When I am here, I never question what has happened. I only question what is to come. So, if you ask me what I look forward to after a year-and-a-half of unprecedented times, I look forward to awkward silence in person — not over Zoom.

Hear me out. Zoom silence was pretty much next to torture. Cameras off, mics muted, chat nowhere near alive, and you hear your professor asking a question to the uninterested class. The embarrassment I would feel after a professor would ask a question three times and defeatedly move on makes me cringe. 

Alas, we are back right where we want to be. No phones out in class and 90% focus on the professor (the other 10% dreaming about what you are going to do once you get out of a hot classroom). At least now we’re all in this together. Someone is bound to speak up. The 20 seconds of crickets that last after a professor poses a question will not be nearly as excruciating as the Zoom silence. So yes, I look forward to my classmates being just as stumped as me, but ~together~.

Gabe Angieri: Actually Learning Something

I really didn’t learn a damn thing while doing classes over Zoom. I honestly felt like I was just going through the motions on a daily basis. It was brutal, folks.

Now that all my classes are in-person, I look forward to actually learning something since, you know, that’s kind of why I’m in college. What a concept!

Rico Gore: Making People Step Over Me In Lecture Halls

I look forward to getting to lectures early and sitting down on the end seat, forcing everyone to step over me. I find it is always the best way to make new friends.