Before the smoke of the last few graduation party barbeques has even cleared, you’ve found that you’re already scrambling to coordinate packing arrangements with your roommate, padding back and forth down the aisles at your local Bed, Bath, and Beyond. Should I buy this alarm clock? You wonder. Maybe I’ll need it; I have an 8:20 lecture… Oh no, what if I get lost and can’t find the lecture hall? Will I find any of my classes? Will my quad-mates be normal? Please, God, let them be normal. Will I pass Physics I? Wait, what if I hate physics and decide I want to go into finance? I hear that’s a good field.
Suddenly, that alarm clock is the least of your concerns. To ease your worries, Her Campus Notre Dame has committed to helping you create the best possible first year experience. With valuable insight from your very own ND RA’s and anecdotes from roommates past, The HCND Freshman Survival Guide is designed to just that. So stick with us, ask questions, and get ready for your new home under the golden dome…
“Who are you now, and who is it you want to become?” was the response a college senior gave me when I asked how he knew he chose the right university. “There are one hundred schools that will be a good fit for the person you are today, but only one that can shape you into the person you want to be. So, what is it you hope to find? Whom do you want to become?”
This is the type of question a person spends his or her entire life attempting to answer. There you are–seventeen or eighteen years old–and it seems like you have this tremendous, daunting task looming over your head. That is, to determine your precise direction in life and tirelessly pursue your dreams. Don’t get me wrong– that’s what we should all strive for– but it would be foolish to say that anyone can achieve that knowledge and accomplish that goal in a matter of months during her senior year of high school. No, I’d consider myself a member of the camp who believe creating yourself is an effort you make each day.
This is why you are here, a member of the University of Notre Dame Class of 2019.
To embellish the words of former football coach Lou Holtz, “You don’t [just] go to Notre Dame to learn something. You go to Notre Dame to be somebody.”
This is the place where you will find the tools to construct your foundation, where you’ll cultivate your values and sharpen your mind. It won’t be easy. I’m telling you here and now that if the things you are asking of yourself and of the world are difficult, your journey toward success will be just as demanding and every bit as challenging. That is what our dreams require. At times, the stresses of college will threaten to knock you down, right to the very rock bottom of life. Know that it is okay if they succeed, and know that you will succeed too. After all, where better to build a foundation than upon solid rock?
As these last few weeks of summer draw to a close, I want to pass on the words of my friend and Notre Dame alumna Lizzie Helpling, “When I got to Notre Dame, I spent a lot of time worried that I didn’t fit in, that I wasn’t good enough to be there. I spent a lot of time comparing myself to my classmates, always to my disadvantage: they were more philosophical; they were cleverer and better at math or chemistry; they had been to Africa and Europe and South America to do service or to study abroad, while I had never really left the Midwest. I spent more time worrying that I wouldn’t live up to my classmates than wondering what I could gain from them.
Realize that, while you are at Notre Dame, you are surrounded by some of the most brilliant, most dedicated, most determined, most disciplined, most enthusiastic people in the world. Realize, too, that everyone you meet is surrounded by the same exact people, and one of them is you.
You are at Notre Dame to learn, not just the definitions and terms and equations and processes that will allow you to gain a degree, but to learn how to argue, debate, think, sympathize, act, wonder, and lose yourself in a community.
You are there to learn from others, and to teach others in turn. Take advantage of this opportunity. Go to your professors’ office hours, even if you are doing fine on the homework. Meet older students, and let them take you out for coffee and tell you about their summer in Bengal. Visit the Career Center, and come to terms with the fact that you will graduate and still not know what you want to do with your life. Stay up until four a.m. at Reckers, eating wood-fire pizza and laughing with your best friends at the improv comedy show you saw that night, or rehashing the lecture your professor made you go to, or convincing each other to spend a couple bucks to go see the opera.
You will never again in your life have this opportunity. This the time in your life when you are most full of promise and excitement, and this is the time in your life when your best friends, your professors, your RAs, your classmates, and the random strangers on the quad will all be able to offer you something beautiful and special. This is the time in your life when you will first be able to call Notre Dame home, and I can tell you, it will become the time of your life.”
Welcome home, class of 2019. This is where you begin.
Be sure to check out last year’s installments of The Dorm Room Survival Guide, and stay tuned for the next installment of The HCND Freshman Survival Guide: Roommates and Residence Halls!
For advice from our HCND RA panel, please forward questions and comments to cmolulon@nd.edu.
The HCND application is now open! For more information contact Rebecca Rogalski at rebeccarogalski@hercampus.com or Katrina Linden at katrinalinden@hercampus.com
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Images: Author’s own.