David Helfand does not drink coffee for three reasons.

I spent three weeks this July house hunting in Queens with my mom. We spent hours shuttling from house to house, trying to find one that felt right for us. As Mom and I drove, talked, laughed, and listened to music, my excitement grew: My parents were moving from Cairo to New York City.

Dear undergraduate students:

For our orientation issue, we’d like to present you with some Blinks: small anecdotes from our staff members. This time around, we’re looking back to our most memorable NSOP experiences in honor of the end of everyone’s favorite week of the year.

Did you know that in 2011, High Times Magazine ranked Columbia University fifth in the United States for marijuana activism?

Going into my first year of high school in Cairo, the only sport that I—chubby, gentle, and overenthusiastically academic—had ever officially joined was elementary school Irish dance. “Athletic” had never even remotely applied to me.

For this week’s Blinks, we asked our staffers to dig out the tiny traditions that have taken shape in their own day to day lives. The little pieces of repetition or habit that hold greater meaning. From paper submissions to salads, and late emails to libraries, here are the results: