It’s been 3 weeks since I’ve been at Brandeis, and though last week was the first full week of class, I feel as if I’ve been here for much longer. Probably because Orientation was so jam-packed with fun and funky things to do. I personally loved it, even if I was left a bit dazed and exhausted at the end of it all. So here’s my review of what I consider the highlights of Orientation.
First, let’s start off with Move In. It was much more organized than I thought. Well, at least getting to the residence hall. The amount of boxes though made me really question my sanity and bemoan the amount of work it was going to take to get everything in order.
But when it was all done after a few hours of constant teamwork between me, my mom, my mom’s friend, my roommate, and her parents, I couldn’t have been more excited to start living on my own (at least away from my mom). The worst part though is leaving the safety of living with her and my dog.
It’s okay though. You’re normally too tired to be too homesick.
After Convocation, there were Hall and Orientation Leader (OL) meetings. And let me just say that you’ll be getting pretty chummy with these people, at least until Orientation is over. But if you’re anything like me, you’ll be asking “What?” a lot due to the fact that it’s almost impossible to hear when all the other groups are talking around you.
And don’t even get me started on remembering names.
And then, the first super fun event (in my opinion) of Orientation: Light Up the Night, where we all wrote our contributions to the college community on sheets of paper, stuffed them in mason jars with electric candles (you know the faux-fancy kind?) and hung the jars on this piece of artwork in the center of the Light Of Reason sculpture in front of the Rose Art Museum before proceeding to a block party on the Great Lawn with music and tons of good food.
Here’s a photo of us on the sculpture:
The next day, we had to see an anti-sexual assault performance called “Speak About It.” And though I originally thought I’d feel like this:
I ended up like this:
And then we had a pep rally, where North Quad clearly was hyped up on too much Red Bull and school spirit while Massell Quad was half-way to falling asleep. It was okay though, it was fun(ny) to watch.
And then we had a really powerful diversity exhibit. I have to say, I was super impressed, especially because I expected it to be a well-intentioned, but poorly-executed thing. Good news? It blew all my preconceived notions out of the water.
Now, by the time we reached the mysterious event called THIS IS OUR HOUSE, most of my friends and I were wondering if we could even muster the energy to go. Thankfully, our amazing OL’s convinced us it was not to be missed and they were right. Our Dean of Student Life and Success was Emcee to essentially a huge house party while a Brandeis alum was the DJ. Here’s a photo of us:
And finally, here’s what I looked like at the end of Orientation: