An Open Love Letter to All Those Just Starting Out

Well, it’s been little over a month since we returned (or arrived for the first time) to Notre Dame. And on a humid, cloudy day like the ones that have crept back after the few glorious moments of sun and warmth, it does some good to take a moment and reflect on all that’s happened this month (and then some).

 

A quick disclaimer before I begin: this is best experienced with a warm cup of a beverage of choice (you may be a tea maven or a coffee aficionado; no matter, it’s whatever brings warmth to your heart) and some soft indie music (I personally recommend anything by Mat Kearney. In fact, pull up Spotify and play his album Young Love).

 

I cannot speak for the experience of anyone who has already spent at least a year on this campus and has returned for yet another year under the Dome. However, this is not an open love letter to only freshmen.

 

We are all just starting out with something. This could be college in general, or a new friendship, or a final year of college; whatever it may be, we are each embarking on a new journey this year.

 

I think we both know that we would lying to ourselves if we said we truly believed that coming to Notre Dame was everything and anything we had expected. There have been great moments, wonderful moments when all is good with the world. There have been low moments, moments in which you have questioned coming here.

 

You are not alone. This place is not meant to be heaven on earth, in which all things are perfect and all things work out in each person’s favor. This is meant to be a place that will challenge you and help you to grow, and we all know growing up isn’t a pretty process.

 

Perhaps this first month hasn’t lived up to your expectations. The parties here seem to pale in comparison to the ones that your friends are going to at their big state flagship schools, and the academics cause more anxiety than you even realized could be possible. After all, we got in here because we rarely settled for less than the best in high school. But being the “best” in college is a naïve goal. Maybe in high school the emphasis was on outdoing everyone so that you stood out, but that shouldn’t be what you do here. This is where you try to find your passions and your strengths, and in doing so you’ll also have to recognize your weaknesses and things that you don’t enjoy at all.

 

Perhaps this first month has surprised you. Maybe that person in your high school that you rarely talked to has become your best friend on campus, because you opened your mind. Maybe your roommate isn’t your best friend, but still someone you can trust and depend on. Maybe your best friend from high school still talks to you each day, despite all the scary thoughts of losing touch with him or her. Maybe your homesickness has struck you harder than you expected. Maybe you have felt tired of being independent, and you just want to be taken care of. Maybe you haven’t made the “lifelong friends” yet, the ones that all the books and the movies and the magazines are full of.

 

Perhaps this first month has brought you all the joy you have ever experienced, along with the sadness that you didn’t expect to feel at a place as beautiful as this.

 

The thing about starting any new journey is that it’s a process of trial and error. There is no perfect way to go about doing something. It varies for us all. It’s alright to not feel satisfied with how your first month has gone, or how your journey has started out, because the wonderful thing is that it was only the first month, and there are many more months to come.

More months to be surprised, to be elated, to feel down, to jump out of your comfort zone.

 

We are all just starting out. You are not alone. 

 

Images: Provided by Author