Freshman year: a time of classes and clubs, dorm decorating and dining hall food, and new friends and frat parties. After eighteen years of waiting, it’s finally time to move away from home and on to new adventures. Right? After a month as a college student, it has become clear that college isn’t exactly what I had pictured.
Expectation: You’ll be super organized and classes are going to be a breeze. With the exception of the occasional all-nighter, you’ll be on top of your academic game.
Reality: It’s 2:54 a.m. on a Tuesday. You don’t quite know where the night has gone, but you’re two subjects and three Red Bulls into the evening. The outlook is bleak.
Expectation: You’re going to be invited to tons of really cool parties, and your weekends will be full of glamorous Instagram-worthy pictures with your friends while you get ready to take on the Tufts social scene.
Reality: After waiting in a big, messy crowd to get into a party, you will make it inside to an even bigger, messier crowd. It will be fun, but all of your efforts to look perfect will be for nothing after approximately five minutes of dancing. You will soon find that Netflix with your roommate is easier and often just as fun.
Expectation: Between this hill and all of the healthy options in the dining halls, you will totally keep the freshman fifteen away.
Reality: Dewick has Sundae Sundays…and Sundae Thursdays. Oops.
Expectation: You will have the most adorable dorm room with fun pictures representing memories from home, cute posters, and colors that coordinate perfectly with your roommate’s.
Reality: You will pull a bunch of pictures from Facebook and get them printed at CVS the day before you leave for school. You and your roomie’s decorations will sort of match, a little bit. Your room may not be perfect, but at least it will start to feel like home!
But overall, these things don’t matter. What matters is that we’re having fun, adjusting well (at least as much as we can), and just making it through. The first few weeks of freshman year have been crazy, overwhelming, and more than a little scary, but I’m sure that we’ll have it figured out soon enough.
Photos courtesy of: dining.tufts.edu, biosanes.com, fourframesphotobooths.com, energyandmotivation.com