For the superstitious optimists, finding a penny on the ground or a ladybug on the shoulder grants enduring good luck. Their version of CSU — which I now realize had been most likely coached into them — was the personification of a college tour pamphlet. I was eager to live out the college experience I had predicted at that moment, a promise of freedom and opportunity so invitingly delivered by the administration’s many welcome programs. Admittedly, my college experience has appeared in stints, and I recognize that many other students likely feel the same. Do not wait to be outspoken about your education, your freedom and the impact of your lived experience until someone else is trying to stifle it.