I don’t know about you guys, but I’m the kind of person who likes to be prepared for absolutely everything. If I need advice on something, I will read article after article, scroll through incredibly long Tumblr masterposts, and poll every single friend I have until I feel thoroughly equipped to tackle the task at hand. With that being said, you best believe I did the exact same thing when getting ready to come down to UCSB and begin my freshman year. However, I don’t think any amount of reading really prepared me for the things I learned in my first week. Here are seven of the most surprising things I learned:
1. People can be nicer than you’d ever think
Like, seriously. After knowing me for less than 24 hours, my floor and RA threw me a surprise birthday party in our lounge. People I hadn’t even met yet from all around my dorm packed in to celebrate with me! Hands down the nicest thing anyone’s ever done for me.
2. Budgeting is HARD
But immensely necessary. I cannot believe how much money I spent in my first week here. To be fair, most of it was on things I actually needed, but still. It’s so easy to go out and spend all your money on food and coffee (especially here at UCSB where Caje and Buddha Bowls are just a 5 minute bike ride away). Bottom line is, budget your money, or end up broke.
3. Everything you’ve heard about the dining hall is true
At least here at UCSB, all the food is actually not too shabby. DLG Mexican food is pretty good, and the salad bar never lets me down. With that being said, the dining hall definitely has its pitfalls. My roommates and I have talked at length about the food here and we’ve come to this conclusion: no matter how good a meal may initially be, nothing hits the spot like a meal from back home does.
Speaking of home-cooked meals,
4. Homesickness is REAL
I know what you’re thinking, “DUH.” But hear me out, when my family dropped me off, I don’t think it hit me. I didn’t cry, they didn’t cry, they left, I went to a soccer game. Super casual. No big deal, right? Yeah, not quite. Approximately five days later when I had my first breakdown in front of Storke Tower, it definitely registered. All the little things I missed from home bombarded my brain at once. Memories of my friends, my family, and my bed all came flooding into my mind and I sat and cried my eyes out for a good 30 minutes. The bright side of all of that? I’m not the only one going through it. Everyone misses home at least a little, and that’s OK.
5. Communal Bathrooms? Not that bad.
This was the one thing that I couldn’t find any particularly soothing information on. All the articles I read were essentially telling me to prepare for a no-man’s land in the dorm bathrooms. However, upon arriving, I soon learned they’re not bad at all. Though there is the occasional massive hairball in the shower drain, the bathrooms are well lit, pretty clean, and overall nothing to worry about.
On the other hand,
6. Laundry? Definitely that bad.
I’ve been doing my laundry at home for years but, something about being in the laundry room here was wildly unsettling. People were funneling in and out of the room like it was Grand Central station, flinging clothes from basket to washer to dryer then back to basket, as if they were competing to be the world’s fastest launderer. At home, doing my laundry was relaxing. I’d take my time, leisurely switching things from washer to dryer and playing music. But here, it’s basically kill or be killed. OK, that may be a bit of an exaggeration, but in all seriousness, stay on top of your ish when it comes to doing your laundry. Otherwise, your stuff might end up wet and collecting dirt on the floor when someone decides they don’t wanna wait for a washer.
7. It’s Not as Scary as it Seems
Though I’d normally never admit this, I was quite anxious about going off to college. I was running my brain ragged, thinking to myself, “What if my roommates hate me?” or “What if I end up hating it here?” It’s so easy to overthink things that haven’t even happened yet. To come up with the worst possible outcome to a situation and let yourself believe that’s what will happen. But, more often than not, that’s not what will happen. In my first week here, so many of the things I’d convinced myself would be so terrible ended up being perfectly fine. There’s no use being scared of the unknown. Trust the process, you’ll be okay in the end.
All images via Giphy