I just failed my first math quiz. The worst part is that it was the easiest math quiz in the world. Of course I feel sad; that is expected. But, on the other hand, it has to take someone who is seriously super smart to derive formula of her own creation to solve a problem (incorrectly). Nevertheless, I have to face reality and accept that I went about solving the problem the wrong way. “It’s okay to make mistakes,” everyone told me after the quiz. I understand, and I usually feel the same way except not now, not in a place that is so new to me. Right now, it is difficult to get a feeling for anything.
I am a freshman at the College, and the transition has not been the easiest to say the least; the pace is different here: it is slower, but time goes by faster. The food, although delicious, does not have a signature “homemade flare” and “made with love” aroma. Nor does my dorm feel familiar despite having picked out the decorations, bedding, and miscellaneous with my family.
When does this unfamiliarity start to feel okay? When does failing a math quiz and missing home begin to feel okay at college? After some soul searching, I believe it will all come together once I stop and smell the roses.
Last night, casually evacuating the building, I smelled burnt toast and other repugnant things wafting from the first floor. Everyone stopped getting ready for bed, walked toward their nearest exit, and converged outside of Yates at 12:00 a.m. As there was nothing that could be done to ameliorate the situation, we took the time to talk to one another. All of us began laughing and carrying on about how this was the third time, in our short week and a half stay at W&M, that a student set off the smoke alarm by burning something in the microwave. That smoke not only caused the firefighters to come together, it also made all of us friends and acquaintances to band together and interact outside the dorm. That smell, now becoming quite familiar to us up on Ukrop Drive, resulted in the exchange of anecdotes and stories from person to person. This pause in the night helped me understand that more times than never, people are most likely in the same boat as I am. There are students who, like me, are trying their very best to get assimilated to the college culture as well. It is nothing to feel sad about just like failing my first math quiz; eventually, everything will get better with time. Everyone continued their conversations as we all went inside. Most importantly, everyone seemed a bit more comfortable than the did when we first came out of the building.
Once stuck in a freshman funk, I have come to terms that the roses in VA smell different that the ones in CT, at least for me. One day, the roses and W&M, will begin to smell and feel familiar. But until then, I will be sure to ask the person next to me what their rose smells like at my next pit stop.