250 days ago, I moved into Centerville Hall to start my college life. I didn't really have a plan for how I expected my college experience to go, so my only goal was to hopefully not regret the decision to move away. And even though I didn't have a plan, things still didn't go as expected. The lows of college life are very, very low; and the highs make me never want to go back home. But through and through, freshman year of college is something that no amount of testimonies and parent lectures can prepare you for.
I never thought I would be sitting through a class thinking about when it's okay to put a terminally ill patient out of their misery. The Rights and Wrongs of Killing People (PHIL203) was by far the most out there course I've taken throughout my time here. Don't get it twisted though 90% of the time the killing is wrong, we just have to argue why with philosophical theories. My roommate and I listen to lectures and discussions about topics like abortion, euthanasia, terrorism/war, and potential future harm twice a week. Even though we're both STEM majors, we both feel like we actually take a lot away from the theories our professor explains. During spring registration, I suggested to my roommate to take this class with me because it covers a lot of hard to get GenEd credits. Testudo's GenEd specific search engine often finds those interesting classes like PHIL203; just spend a couple minutes scrolling through and you'll find something.
I got many mixed signals when going into college about what I should be prioritizing. From my mom, I was told to just try and adjust to college life and classes before thinking about my professional life. From my brother, I was to always prioritize my connections and take every last research opportunity in front of me. I decided to use a mix of strategies to work towards my professional life while still adjusting to college. Now, I regret not listening to my brother a little more because adjusting to classes is pretty easy. However, I felt very scared throughout the first semester trying to connect with professors. It's just something I wasn't used to since previously, teachers will always know your name and three things about you. In my second semester, I found a better strategy for growing closer with faculty and staff. I often make connections to the TAs in my classes, then through them, grow closer with the professor. I highly recommend this strategy to incoming students who are especially terrified to talk to their professors because TAs are much more approachable.
As for building relationships with my fellow students on campus, I have gotten quite lucky being close with the people around me. My goal coming into college was to try and make some close friendships and not end up with a bunch of acquaintances. I did not know my roommate well before moving in, but thankfully, we became very close friends. An issue I had throughout my time in the first couple weeks is that I didn't realize how shy of a person I had become. Throughout the last three years, I haven't had to make too many new friends, so the process of making new friends felt foreign again. I have my headphones on a lot and don't like introducing myself to others, but a strategy I made is to pretend like I'll never see the person I'm talking to ever again, so I don't have to be scared of making a good first impression.
Something that was completely understated was the effect of finals week on a college freshman. Unless you're in extremely easy classes like coloring with crayons 100, finals week is the closest I've come to experiencing hell on Earth. There's a general sense of unease even weeks before the last week. You're tired of class so you start skipping the ones that aren't worth your time; you're getting up later than normal; you're sick of the dining hall food, so you're getting takeout significantly more often. All these factors combine to leave you in the library feeling like shit with multiple essays to write and tests to study for. Any anxiety from low grades will also add to stress. However, there is really only one way to mitigate the horrible effects of finals week: start early. I wish I started out on studying and final papers/projects much earlier to prevent myself from staying up until 5am every night for a week in a row. Also, you can't be hard on yourself for a bad grade. If you spend all your time thinking about how bad you did, you'll never move forward.