We should all welcome to the University of Colorado’s Boulder campus the freshmen class of 2028. Their class is predicted to have an enrollment of over 7,000 plus students, out of an estimated record-breaking 37,353 overall. (Final numbers are released a few weeks into the semester.) They have arrived to get ready for fall classes that begin tomorrow August 26.

I urge all of you new students to take advantage of this wonderful opportunity to pursue your studies at one of the nation’s top schools and hope you experience Boulder’s remarkable beauty and outdoor recreational opportunities.

Maybe the football team under Coach Prime will return to national prominence as it once was in the early 1990s.

What an exciting, frightening, fast-moving era we all live in! Many of your studies will give you competency in economic sectors, and jobs that didn’t exist 20-30 years ago.

Become a problem-solver. If so, take your pick:

Human action or inaction, confirms that climate change is wreaking havoc with high temperatures, lost water supplies, forest fires and melting icebergs. Perhaps your fate is to make a great discovery that will prevent further damage to the environment.

Your generation must insist that people be more responsible and socially aware of protecting both civil rights and voting rights, that we recycle far more than we do now, that we recognize more mental health needs to be addressed, that we fight back against bullies, domestic terrorism and so much more.

According to Statista, most of the freshman class belong to Generation Z (for Zoomers, over 69 million of them and 20% of our total population), which is comprised of those born between 1997 and 2012. Most of the class of 2028 were born in 2006.

The endless rollout of new technology tools has heavily influenced you. Between burying your noses in your phones, using TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat to express emotions without words and believing far too many inaccurate postings on the Internet, you’ve got us older folks worried about your judgment and critical thinking abilities. Prove us wrong.

You are keenly aware of the major threats to the security of our country, created by present wars and threats of future war, a global climate crisis, erosion of the middle class and the need for ethics in the use and development of Artificial Intelligence.

You have been shaped by domestic terrorism, gun violence, race and gender inequality.

CU officials greeted you when you arrived on campus. They wished you good luck. And though I agree with that sentiment, I’m also going to wish you a little “hard luck.” The effects of the COVID-19 virus during your middle school years were only a precursor of your future life’s challenges.

I say it will help you to live through some tough experiences besides the pandemic. Why? Because many of life’s challenges can make you stronger, more humble, sensitive and empathetic, more capable of surviving on your own and better able to handle life’s curveballs.

The sooner you learn that life is sometimes unfair or unjust, the better you’ll be able to cope.

Learn some of these life lessons “outside” the classroom:

• You are forced to periodically find yourselves without enough money. Perhaps it will steer you to enter public service to help the underprivileged.

• You fail at something big and you will learn humility, as well as how to better prepare yourself for future challenges.

• If you’re not already a member of a minority group you can at least learn what they have gone through and continue to endure as they encounter prejudice. Your tolerance and compassion will grow from this.

• Endure deep emotional pain about something, whether it’s a romantic breakup or losing someone close to you. This will help you learn that people’s pain may not show on the outside.

• Learn to be comfortable, not afraid, to be alone. You will better learn how to be comfortable with yourself. That would increase the likelihood of success and personal joy in your life.

• Your confidence plummets, making you feel you have control over little or nothing. The lesson is not to try to control everything in your life. Let go! Things generally happen how they are meant to be. We are powerless over so much of life’s events.

• Question yourself — often — asking, “What is my purpose in life?” Keep doing so until you find comfortable answers.

I wish you success in the classroom —- but even more victories in your personal development.

Godspeed!

Jim Martin is a former Regent and adjunct law professor. Martin can be reached at jimmartinesq@gmail.com.