By Sierra Byrne
The year 2020 brings so many emotions to so many people; while for some it might be same and others may be different. Me and about ~3,000 students all have the same idea since it was the year our journey at the University of Vermont started. We collectively as new students had to navigate through all of the uncertainty and weariness everyone felt. But for me specifically, I buckled up and was ready for an adventure UVM brought me.
Flash forward four years later, I will be a senior at UVM, yeah… a senior… in just a few short weeks. There is an immense level of excitement that I feel entering my final year and ending it with some of my bestest friends. But in all transparency, the friends that I have now in my final year are not the friends I had when I was a first year. And take it from me, that is OK!
The next four years will be the most challenging but also the most rewarding. You will grow as a person in ways that you have never imagined. You will be in situations you have dreamt about and also ones that you never expected. WIth all of this, keep an open mind and remind yourself that everyone else is doing this for the first time as well and you are not alone.
The days that I was a first year, I immediately felt out of place, timid and overwhelmed and that is all normal! I can not emphasize that enough; that is the feeling of leaving a place you felt so comfortable at and traveling to a place you have to now call “home”. So, most importantly put yourself in situations where you can meet new people and get familiarized with your surroundings.
Take a walk to the Waterfront, or go to Lone Rock for a sunset swim or even stroll down Church Street. As a current senior, I urge you to ensure that you feel comfortable and safe in your environment so that you are willing and excited to explore more.
Rather than telling you what to do, I rather share some of the most incredible memories that allowed Vermont to be the best place to call home…
… creating the dorm beds into mega beds to have endless sleepovers with many friends cramped onto the bed watching movies, bonfires on Letty Beach, City Market hot bar dinners while watching the sunset at the waterfront, ski/snowboard trips, apple picking at Shelburne Farms, etc. The list can go on and I bet it will but these are some of the experiences that made my time at UVM remarkable.
You will face challenges that are inevitable but the way you respond to that challenge and grow from that will make you stronger than ever. Don’t forget to call home once in a while (your parent’s do miss you even if they say they are happy you are leaving!), become close with the students in your major since you will see them for the next four years, befriend your professors!
End of the day, have fun. Work hard and play hard. College flies by so make sure you enjoying every moment of it, especially coming from a soon-to-be senior.
Go Cats, always.
With Love,
Sierra