“Welcome back—it’s so good to see everyone in person again!!!”
I’ve heard this phrase countless times over the past couple of weeks, and though it’s certainly not as frustrating as “it’s been an uNpReCeDeNtEd year,” it’s still a crazy phrase to hear over and over again. Between the many mishaps while I was moving into my off-campus Los Angeles home, the past two busy weeks of being an Orientation leader on campus, and FINALLY returning back to LMU for classes, life has been chaotic, to say the least. It’s definitely a good type of crazy chaos, but there’s a lot to unpack here.
Let’s talk about moving. We took two cars to bring my things to LA; I drove to LA a couple of hours before my parents did with all my clothes & small essentials, and my parents’ car was packed with furniture: my desk, chair, bed frame, and mattress. The mattress and bed frame were strapped to the top of my parents’ SUV… the only issue: we did not secure the ratchets tight enough. About an hour and a half after I arrived to unload my car, I got a text from my parents: “Houston we have a problem… there’s a queen mattress and bed frame items on the 91 FWY.” Indeed, my mattress and bed frame slid off the back of my parents’ car and then immediately got run over by a pick-up truck. I wasn’t there for the experience, but I was later debriefed that CHP/911 was called to clean up the mess, nobody was injured (thank goodness!), and that the mattress and bed frame was no longer in my possession. We probably also caused a little bit of a traffic back-up, so I send over my sincerest apologies if you were affected by this incident.
SparkNotes version of the story: it took me a week or two to officially settle into my new place, as I slept on the couch and eagerly waited for my new mattress and bed frame to come in the mail.
Let’s move on to Orientation. We had a busy and full week of in-person training leading up to the main event—Orientation Week. And this year, Orientation ran a little more chaotic than usual. We welcomed freshmen, sophomores, first-year transfers, and second-year transfers to LMU’s campus; that’s four different Orientation Programs running simultaneously! It took a lot of organizing, responsibility, accountability, and communication for the program to run as smoothly as possible. Though the long days and constant giving of energy and enthusiasm were extremely draining, it was also a very fun week. It was a great way to warm up to seeing everyone back on campus, and it was also a great way for me to get (a LOT of) human interaction practice before school officially started. Though to be honest, I didn’t even feel like a real, operating person during the duration of Orientation — I tend to get very chaotic when I’m tired, so that’s the type of energy I was running on the entire week. It was a long two weeks, but when I look back on it, that entire process was also a blur… a very fun blur though!
And that leads us up to the first day of classes. It was strange packing up my backpack for class again—I honestly had a difficult time trying to figure out what I was supposed to bring with me to school! It was also a struggle trying to plan out how long it would take me to get ready for school, walk/drive/bike to campus, get to class, and settle in (SPOILER ALERT: I was late to my first class). AND it’s been a struggle readjusting to a rhythm to get my schoolwork done. There’s still lots to figure out, but overall, I’m so thankful to be back.
…and that’s it for now! Good luck & Godspeed to all those returning to school — you can do it!!!