Photo courtesy of scad.edu
It’s all come down to this: you’ve packed up your favorite clothes, color coded each class in your planner and held back tears as you hugged your parents goodbye. This time will be different, you think to yourself. Fast forward a week and your first seven days at university are over and done with and maybe some things didn’t go as planned. I spoke with four freshman and got the nitty gritty on their first week experiences–the good, the bad, and the embarrassing.
The Good: Aiyah Obaiah, a freshman at Savannah College of Art and Design, says that what she enjoyed most about her first week at SCAD was the campus’ culture, saying “SCAD is very unique in the way that individuals are able to express themselves. The divide between femininity and masculinity is blurred and the student body is completely accepting of it”. She gave her first week a 10/10 on the How Rad Was Your First Week scale.
The Bad: “It’s been hard adjusting to new people. Back home everyone knows who you are and what you’re like–here you have to constantly explain yourself and that gets tiring”, says Sonal Kawatra.“You assume people are on the same page as you but they’re not”. Sonal gave her first week an 8/10.
The Embarrassing: What’s nice about college is the amount of new people you meet–sometimes too many. Amy Yu recalled an awkward moment in the dining hall: “I had met this guy a couple of days ago and thought I saw him in passing, so I made a big show of calling his name and awkwardly gesturing at him. When he finally came up to me, he introduced himself. I had the wrong guy entirely”. Amy rated the first week an 8/10.
Though starting at college is daunting, it’s comforting to know that everyone is having the exact same experiences right alongside with you. So don’t sweat the small stuff and know that everyone has had those cringeworthy moments. We’re all in this together after all.