Freshmen Year Reflection
Right now, I am sitting at a brightly colored table at the Colectivo by the lake and it is 72 degrees. The warm weather has brought the people of Milwaukee out of their little hobbit holes, and the suddenly the city seems populated with college students, runners, and the old and the young enjoying the first week of warm weather Milwaukee has blessed us with since maybe October.
The students at Marquette have survived what has seemed like endless winter, filled with blizzards in April and random warm days in February. It’s been a journey.
As a freshman, I really cannot fathom packing up the plethora of things in my dorm room, loading them up into our red minivan, and heading home for four months. It feels like two separate lives, that rarely collide.Looking back on everything that has happened this year, it does feel like I have grown up over the last 9 months than I have in my entire life.
College is weird. Suddenly, you are thrown into a whole new life: a whole new routine with strangers who will become some of the people you spend every day with. You are suddenly forced out of your comfort zone and you are in charge of your own life, from what you eat to if you go to class. Your success and failures are up to you. Suddenly you have complete control of your life.
It can be a scary pill to swallow. But, it is also a very important one to experience and internalize. It helps you grow up, and it gives you agency to get your life together and gain control of what you want to do. Of course, there are roadblocks along the way. Long nights at the library, lacking the familiarity of home, and learning to make and to sustain the friendships that make you the best version of yourself.Those things do take time, and everything is not picture perfect and does not fall into place right from the moment you step on campus. It takes the good and the bad to show you that college is what you make of it, and ultimately it is up to you to put yourself out there.
So, as I sit reflecting on the past year of late night Corms snacks, journalism classes that have kept me at the edge of my seat, and strangers that have turned into some of my best friends, I can say with certainty that even through the hard times, I have found a sense of home on campus. Through the people, the opportunities, and the long walks back to my dorms on late Tuesday nights, I have found my place.
College is hard, and it is definitely an adventure that takes some getting used to. The “best four years of your life” come with a lot of pressure, but with time comes some great memories.