Freshman year at college is one of the best years of our lives. Everything is new, everything is a learning
experience, and everything is memorable. Even though it’s second semester and we pretty much know TCNJ’s layout and what campus events are going on, it’s still all relatively new. Freshman year still brings novelty, especially to those unforgettable nights at parties and boring days that lead to countless hours of watching old TV shows with your floormates and the occasional pint of Ben and Jerry’s.
Being a second semester freshman at TCNJ is bittersweet. Looking back to Welcome Week, you can’t help but realize how much has changed since those beginning days in late August. Waking up to the sound of your CA’s banging at the door, congregating in the elevator lobby for floor meetings, being forced to participate in ice breakers. And to think, you never were able to think of any clever “Two Truths and a Lie.”
A lot of people have openly admitted that in those first few days, they really missed home. Once classes were underway and Welcome Week was just a memory, friendships really started forming. Welcome Week activities did not necessarily bring about these close friendships. What brought people together were the lulls in the days; the times when we didn’t have any scheduled, formal events. I credit a floor-wide volleyball game the day after classes began for bonding a good portion of my floor. I remember walking back to the Towers after hours of playing in the scorching sun with two soon-to-be very close friends, dehydrated and ready for a nice long shower. Though I could barely speak due to my tiredness at the time, I never had more to say.
After going home for Labor Day weekend, the same people who longed for their beds and friends from home actually missed college. Even though we were only at school for about eight days before going home again, it felt like we had already been at TCNJ for a month. The days at school were long, providing an excellent opportunity for group bonding at all hours of the day and night. I don’t even know exactly how a lot of my friendships formed, sometimes it seems like they were just as random as the weather.
Freshman year feels like one giant never-ending sleepover with your best friends. In fact, sometimes we have legitimate sleepovers, or “slovers” as my friends and I call it.
This Her Campus freshman blog is a means of communicating all-things related to freshman year, from being bored in the dorms due to lack of a car, to the always complicated issue of floorcest, to friendships.
Freshman year teaches us a lot about ourselves and about others, whether we realize it or not. Why not talk about it?
Julia will be charting the course of freshman year here at TCNJ, giving voice to her fellow first-year collegiettes and bring back memories for our upperclasswomen. Comment below if you have a suggestion for Julia to write about!