Opinion
Freshman year brings friends, embarrassing stories, lifelong memories
September 27, 2012
For many UW-River Falls freshmen, the past three weeks have been a whirlwind. Between remembering the names of the people on your floor, making new friends and finding your classes, it’s a lot to take in in such a short period of time.
Being a freshman myself, I can relate to these feelings. Within my first few weeks here, I have managed to humiliate myself numerous times.
Whether it be by attempting to unlock the door of my residence hall with my room key, tripping up the stairs in front of a group of my peers or walking around the same floor of a building three times and somehow always missing the classroom I’m supposed to be in, I’ve been there.
Embarrassing stories from the first few weeks of freshman year will become stories we tell for the rest of our lives. Lauren Doyle, a freshman majoring in psychology, will never forget what happened her first week of college. “I was walking back from the showers in only a towel, and I accidentally barged into my guy neighbor’s dorm room thinking it was my own. And he was shirtless!”
Marie Christenson, a freshman majoring in pre-med, experienced her first embarrassing moment on campus when she began changing in her neighbor’s room and heard her neighbor screaming from the other room, “WAIT! My Skype is still on!”
Alex Yost, a freshman agricultural engineering major, has already managed to lose his crab, Wilbur, in his dorm room. There have been moments when I have doubted I chose the right major, or even the right college, and times when I wanted to go back to high school where the homework was much easier.
Juel Gunderson, a freshman majoring in conservation, describes his transition to college life. “It’s difficult,” he says. “It’s hard being away from home and getting used to new friends and how much studying you have to do.”
If there’s one thing I’ve learned from my college experience, it is that everything becomes easier in time. New people will soon become familiar faces, and meeting new people and making new friends becomes second nature over time.
Christenson doubted her ability to make friends and adapt to a new environment when she first arrived. “When I first came here, I was worried that I wouldn’t make a lot of friends,” Christenson says. “I was surprised that I was able to make the friends that I have that I now hang out with every single day.”
Finding things to do in a new area may seem difficult at first, but Christenson says that if you look hard enough, there’s always something to do in River Falls.
“We have movie nights what seems like every night. We are always pranking people in the hall and jogging around the campus and around town.”
So if you’re a freshman wondering if you’re the only one that seems to be constantly embarrassing themselves, or if you’re the only one still getting lost on the way to classes, know that you’re not alone.
We’re all going through the same things, and it will all become easier in time. Before we know it, we’ll be graduating and heading out into our chosen field, whether we know what that is or not!
We have four years to experience this crazy journey together, so don’t worry if all the pieces haven’t come together yet.
Kylie Bell is a student at UW-River Falls.