By: Jessi Walker
I was very excited to be moving back into my dorm room at Kutztown University, especially in a building that has air conditioning and 4 single rooms. Move-in went surprisingly well, despite the fact I live on the highest level with no elevator. I did most of my unpacking on Thursday but went back on Friday to officially move in and say goodbye to my mother. Friday morning, I woke up with a killer headache, which isn’t too unusual for me. I started feeling horrible just with the little bit of activity on that Friday, and I was soon shivering in the room with my mother.
My room is laid out really nicely this year, so I knew exactly where my medicine and supplies for illnesses were, unlike last year. This was helpful for when I pulled out the thermometer. It turned out had a fever, which scared me to death. I ended up crying, and my mom let me lay down as she completed the final touches on my room. She left and told me to rest, which I did. I still had a fever the next day, but it went away on Sunday. However, I still didn’t feel quite right during the first week of class.
This year, I am taking the challenge of having six courses. One course is online, which helps it feel less like six, but I haven’t actually had five in person yet either. Before I was taking four in person and one online, and I think I prefer that. Having to go to three classes in one day sucks. Two and two or three and one is so much better. The courses I am taking this year are Literature and Psychology, Literature and Film, Women Writers in Performance, Journalism, Intro to Theatre, and Dinosaurs, which is the online class I mentioned. I like Women Writers in Performance the most because acting is fun for me. I prefer it over Theatre, mostly because Theatre is a lecture course with a lot of exams and no performances. The professor is requiring us to either see his show or see another show, and I chose to go see his show in Philadelphia on the bus trip. I hadn’t been to Philadelphia before, so I figured it would at least be a fun experience to go to a new city. I like Journalism as well, and the two English courses are alright. I can’t really rank an online class because they are so different in nature.
I’ve been more busy this semester, as I have gotten a job at the Writing Center here on campus. We’ve been having meetings for training, and I had the first sessions for my job on Friday. It is a challenging position for me because I feel more like an editor than a tutor at heart. I have to silence the demon editor inside of me, because we aren’t meant to be a proofreading service or tear apart papers, and that’s a skill I developed this past year to edit really efficiently.
I’ve also become the Editor in Chief for Shoofly Literary Magazine, which is a magazine we publish each year on campus full of student’s poetry, fiction, and drama pieces. I originally volunteered to be the Vice President and the Head of Fiction, but a change of circumstances led to me becoming the Editor in Chief instead. I am nervous for the position, as I am an awkward talker, but I think I can rise up to the challenge. I’m trying to decide which 3 pieces I want to submit for the publication myself.
Despite my busyness, I have still found time to go to campus events. I went to the Involvement Fair as part of my e-board duties, but I have also managed to lose at bingo twice, and I went to the painting of gnomes. I have also enjoyed the time I have spent hanging out with my suitemates, although they are also busy so it isn’t very often.
My year seems to be off to a good start, and I am happily looking forward to the rest of the semester.