Back to What?

Coming back to Susquehanna was very exciting, but I think I need to make it clear, to both my readers and myself, that coming back to Susquehanna is exactly that: coming back to Susquehanna. I didn’t come back to my freshman year, to Hassinger Hall, or to a top bunk. I didn’t come back to pick things up as they left off—not exactly. This year is new.

My room this year--before it got messy!

Not as new as coming into Susquehanna as a nervous freshman wondering what college will entail.

But still new. New enough that I am curious to see where this year takes me. New enough , even though I’m familiar with my friends, this campus, and the routine of work and classes,  that it’s taking a bit of adjustment to get back into the swing of things.

Or more accurately, to start a new swing of things.

Something I have to tackle this year is how to maintain and balance friendships with people who I used to live with but now don’t get to see on that same, day-to-day basis.  Only a certain set of my friends have that same right-down-the-hall status. Also, I’m still acclimating  to living alone. I definitely need to work out a cleaning routine because, without a roommate to consider, I’ve let things get a bit disheveled. Clearly, this isn’t the biggest issue with living alone, but it’s something I should probably work on!   

In another entry, I talked about how being a sophomore was good because I had a comfort zone from which to start. That’s still true. However, that comfort zone has had to shift and budge a little. It’s been altered—it’s been pinched by some discomforts, forces of change. Discomfort isn’t a negative, though.  No year can be the same as the one before. And next year I may, all over again, be contemplating on how to adapt to the changes of a different academic year.

 I’ll admit that, right now, I have a bit of nostalgic longing for my freshman year. I see people enter Hassinger—people that aren’t me—and go a bit gooey on the inside. Facebook shows me status updates from “this day in 2010,” and I relive that fresh, exciting period of time where I was just really discovering and getting to know the friends I have now.

I’m hoping that next year my time as a sophomore will elicit the same feelings.

Starting Sophomore Year

After a summer of watching Doctor Who on Netflix, messaging college friends on Skype, and hanging up clothing for minimum wage at my local Salvation Army, I am back in Selinsgrove for my sophomore year.

And believe me, I’m excited about it.

I will definitely miss my family and friends from home, but while at home, I definitely missed Susquehanna.

Today marks my second day of classes. So far I’ve gone to Intermediate Fiction and a little later in the day will have Hebrew Bible. I’m very excited about Intermediate Fiction—so excited that I may have, a bit foolishly, chosen the first date for workshops. I need to have a 6 to 25 page story read to send out to my classmates by September 2^nd! Thankfully, I have a lot of ideas for it, and I have some things already written that I could use.

Yesterday I attended English Grammar and the Writing Process, Thought & The Natural Sciences, and Sophomore Essay. My sophomore essay is going to be something about the portrayal of faith and religion in YA novels. Over the summer I read about six books to give me some background on it. I think I am going to focus my idea by specifically examining how YA novels represent religious doubt and its consequences and analyzing the accuracy or the helpfulness of such representations. This essay needs to be 15-20 pages long, and the first draft is, I believe, due in October. I definitely need to get to work on it. 

Probably one of the biggest differences so far is living in a different dorm. My dorm this year is smaller and a bit quieter. I have a single, a room to myself, instead of sharing a double. It’s nice to have my own space, but it’s also a bit strange since, so far, I’ve associated college with having a roommate. Some of my friends from my freshman dorm, Hassinger, are living with me in this new dorm, the Scholar’s House, so that definitely helps with the transition.

I am excited about what this year has in store! I hope to grow as a person and a writer, form new friendships, and just have a lot of fun along the way. It’s strange no longer being a freshman and seeing all these new faces on campus that are—gasp—actually younger than me, but it’s also nice to return to a familiar place.

Even if I have to get used to walking everywhere from a whole different side of campus.  

Almost at Easter Break

Friday I had a workshop for my literary journalism piece in Intro to Creative Nonfiction, which was about me going to a dog expo where they had Dog Olympic Games and pet contests. I wasn’t feeling too great about the piece, but the workshop went a lot better than I thought; in the grand scheme of things, this piece might be the one that needs the least amount of revision, in comparison to my personal essay and memoir. Like Intro to Fiction, Intro to Creative Nonfiction ends with the turning in of a final portfolio. Whenever I try to think of all the assignments left before the year's end, I keep forgetting about it. Hopefully this doesn't continue. 

Relay Team in our super cool tent

Also on Friday, a group of friends from my floor in Hass headed off to Relay for Life, an event that lasted from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. the next morning; it raises money for cancer research. It was held in the Field House part of the fitness center. They had activities and tables selling things to raise more money. The most touching aspect was the Luminara Lap, during which the lights went off and attendees lit bags around the track in remembrance of those who fought against cancer.  It was impacting to see just how many people have lost love ones due to cancer, and I felt very blessed and privileged that I have not yet undergone such a loss. I did a lot of walking. Seriously, that was probably more exercise than I’ve done all year. By the end of the night (or morning, I suppose), my feet were in terrible pain, and of course I was exhausted. I climbed into my bed and woke up around 2 p.m. that day. Basically, it threw off my sleeping schedule for the entire weekend. (Can I still blame it for my late start this morning?)

The rain and wind were very intense Saturday. My friend Lindsey and I ventured outside, in hopes of making it to Deg for dinner, but made it about five steps before retreating back indoors. We ended up ordering Domino’s. Sunday was a day for getting work done. I also went to the Bible Study at Dr. Martin and Dr. Bohmbach’s house, which was awesome as usual. Also exciting was my roommate coming back, who'd been home sick for a few days.

This weekend I was slightly stressed out because I have a lot of work coming up in these few days before Easter Break. I have two group presentations tomorrow, one for Applied Biblical Ethics on Female Genital Mutilation and one in Sociology on Underage Drinking, and an 8 page paper on the influence of narrative technique in Daisy Miller and The French Lieutenant’s Woman for Romantic Novels. I really am looking forward to break, though it would be smart for me to spend it working on other upcoming assignments. I have two final exams, a final portfolio, and two more papers due before the end of the year. Another source of stress is finding a job for the summer!  I've felt so busy and haven't set aside enough time to apply to jobs.  I really need to get on it this week, especially over break.

If only break could actually mean a break!

An Eventful Weekend

This weekend was a bit more eventful than usual. 

On Friday, I finally found out that my Scholars House application was accepted, as were my friends Lindsey and Alexis’s.  It’s such a relief to know where I’m living next year without having to undergo that lottery process.  The three of us are very excited that we all got in.  Funny enough, we’re numbers 207, 208, and 209, which might mean we’re in a row.  

That night, my friends and I headed over to TRAX to watch the Battle of the Bands.   Four bands played.  There was really a range of different music, from covers of Lady Gaga, Pink, Blink 182, and Flyleaf to original compositions.  I noted a high percentage of Creative Writing majors among the band members, which is always amusing; really, Creative Writing majors are just crawling all over this campus. 

Saturday afternoon, I worked on decorating my paddle for Alpha Phi Omega.   In APO, you decorate a paddle for your Big, or your mentor-like figure guiding you through pledging, and present it to them during Initiation. 

That night, two friends and I went to see The Rocky Horror Picture Show. What they do in these showings is play the movie but also have a shadow cast on stage, who acts along with the movie.  The audience is encouraged to interact by doing call-outs which involve shouting at the screen, “WHERE’S YOUR NECK?!” at the narrator or booing a certain character.  It was definitely an interesting experience for me.  I had seen the movie before (an interesting experience in and of itself, because it’s strange!), but I’d never been to anything live like that.

Sunday was not particularly eventful.  At 7 p.m., I went over to the Selinsgrove Church of the Nazarene for a Lent service.  There was worship, and then the choir performed the first three scenes of their Easter musical, which was really good.

Of course, I left my homework to Sunday, like the procrastinating being that I am.

This upcoming week, I have both of the pledge service projects for Alpha Phi Omega, one on Friday and the other on Saturday.  On Sunday I have induction into Alpha Lambda Delta, the freshman academic honor society.  My parents and my brother are coming up for the occasion, and afterwards, we will probably hang out, go to the mall, and head to Red Robin for some dinner.  I’m looking forward to that, especially since my brother is moving very shortly to Los Angeles, so it might be a while before I see him again.

I’m predicting that the month of April will be very busy for me.  Hopefully that means it will just fly by, though that may end up being bittersweet.   I don’t have that much time left as a freshman and not that much time left in Hassinger!

Dances and Dig-Ins and Inductions, Oh My!

This weekend was another interesting one--and definitely very busy!

Karen and I before dancing Friday

Friday was a night of dances.  First friends and I headed out to the Freshman Valentines' Day dance in Reed.  After hanging out there for a while, we headed over to TRAX for the Sock Hop, sponsored by SU Swings!  Swing dancing is really cool...to watch.  I didn't have those kind of moves or basic coordination, so a few friend sand I headed back early.

Saturday started the InterVarsity Dig-In, a small conference that brought together students in InterVarsity Christian Fellowship at various colleges together to delve into a section of scripture, specifically the Sermon on the Mount.  Susquehanna actually hosted the conference this year.  At first it didn't feel like being on a conference since I was still on campus, but in the end I thought that it was really cool that, as a fellowship, we were able to experience intense Bible study and worship in places like the New Science Building or Faylor Lecture Hall.  SU students, along with students from Bucknell, hosted people overnight since the Dig-In continued into Sunday. My friends and I in Hass mostly hosted girls from Penn State.  It was funny to hear their opinions on the conditions of our residence halls (They seemed impressed! And they didn't even act as if my room in Hass was that small!), the size of our campus, and the many more stars in the sky.

Saturday night we took the students we were hosting over to Charlie's, the coffeehouse that is open at night on campus, where we met up with many people who were at the conference.  An enormous group of us ended up playing Catchphrase in Mellon Lounge, which is a part of our campus center.  It was basically the most intense game of Catchphrase I've ever played.   

On Sunday, after the end of the conference, it was back to the grindstone.  I already thought I had enough work when realized that my memoir--yes!  the memoir that I have been posting and angsting about!--completely slipped my mind. It was due out to my peers, it was already late, and I hadn't made any of the changes I had wanted. I shot out an e-mail saying I'd try to get the story to everyone by 5:30 and so sorry I was late. I had a few scenes handwritten that I wanted to add in, so I added those and tried to do a few of the other changes I'd been hoping to make.  Today will be my workshop on that piece.  As a perfectionist, I'm disheartened that it was late and not in the shape I would have liked it, especially since that's all my own fault, but I'm trying to look at it as a blessing in disguise--if I had the time to really work on it and think before sending it out, I may have let insecurity impact what I was writing.

I went to the Plugged-In Service at Church of the Nazarene that evening, a service specifically for college-aged people.  Afterward I headed over to Deg for dinner.  I grabbed some food from Benny's and ended up reading Wuthering Heights for my Thought & Civilization class in Mellon Lounge.  I was surprised by how productive I was without the distractions of friends or my laptop.  

At 9, I had my Alpha Phi Omega induction, which basically began my pledge process.  Alpha Phi Omega, as I have written in previous entries, is a coed service fraternity.  APO is divided up in families, and I am ecstatic to be part of the Hippo family.  I am also ecstatic that I got the Big (a mentor who takes you through the pledging process) I wanted and that I am sharing her with my friend Kathleen (this makes us "twins," in APO terminology)!  I didn't bring my camera with me, so I'm excited for those pictures to show up on Facebook.

The majority of the things that happened this weekend were super awesome, but I have been very busy. Perhaps the week will actually feel like a break in comparison? 

Sadly, I doubt this.  A lot.

Oh, and happy Valentine's Day!

A Look at the Weekend

This weekend was a fairly interesting one.  I was in the midst of my little environmental-friendly experiment (for more information, see my previous entry; basically all you need to know is this meant reduced internet usage, eek!) as well as being temporarily roommate-less since my roommate had gone home for the weekend.  As could be imagined, with not much to entertain me in Rm. 301, I spent a fair amount of time harassing others with my presence in their rooms. 

On Friday, a friend from high school came up to visit.  It was a lot of fun to have him here.  At the same time, it was strange see someone from my high school world, so separate and distinct, mixing with my college world--my college friends.  We didn't do much while he was here, besides hit Benny's for some dinner, sit around in the hallway, and then move our sitting and chattering out into the lounge.  My college way of life seems to attest to the idea that you don't actually have to do much, or even go out anywhere, to have a good time.  After he left, I joined some friends in watching 500 Days of Summer, but I was feeling sick so I headed to bed a bit early.

Saturday, friends and I took the free shuttle service over to Wal-Mart, where I bought some Capri Sun, my personal college essential, water, tissues, and Ritz Crackers.  An added bonus to Wal-Mart: being able to get some McDonalds!  Nothing else exciting really happened until some friends and I headed over to TRAX.  I hadn't been there in a while, so it was a lot of fun to one, dress up, and two, get to dance.  Glitter was a part of the party theme, so a friend in the dorm helped glitterfy me.  Glitter is now all over my bed and probably elsewhere in my room.  But it was a really good time so maybe the glitter was worth it, as well as the ache in my feet as we trudged back to Hass.

Sunday, I went to chapel and then brunch (one of the greatest meals of the week at SU!).  I then headed to the library to make some changes to the draft of my memoir piece for Creative Nonfiction and then e-mailed it to Dr. Retief.  My conference about this piece is today, actually.  I'm pretty terrified--though not as much as I will be for workshop.  I've never really given anyone something this personal to read, especially not for critiquing purposes! Back at Hass, I watched The Little Mermaid with friends while finishing up some homework.  Then, finally, I went to InterVarsity's Super Bowl party, where I did a very poor job at paying attention. 

Overall, a good weekend, but I could've gone without the whole catching-a-cold component.

Looking Forward: Living Arrangements for Next Year

As an incoming freshman, your fate is fairly limited when it comes to living arrangements.   I was blessed to be able to connect with a friend I’d made at a summer writing workshop.  We requested each other as roommates.  We were also able to request Hassinger Hall.  Though we knew it had smaller dorm rooms than some of our other options, its reputation fit us best.  All in all, I went into my first day less blind than many who were plopped into a random residence hall with a random roommate whose interests and personality could be far from compatible with their own. 

Deciding living arrangements for the upcoming year, however, has a lot more choice involved.

A singular roommate is not all that must be considered.   I have a whole group of friends, and all of us must work out who is living with who, and who is living by who, and where it is we’re going to live.  Nobody really cared about my choice of living arrangements coming into this year, besides my roommate and of course my interested parents, but now there’s a bit more to juggle.  What I and my friends pick will impact each other and will contribute to the shaping of our sophomore years. 

Personally, I like West Village a lot for the kitchens and the layout with the common area.   I stayed there during my second summer that I attended a writing workshop and was very impressed, though the toilets flush scarily loud.  However, I would really like to live in Seibert, though I’ve yet to go inside any of its dorm rooms.  I suppose I’ve fallen for its charm.  Just as I’ve always been impressed with the cuteness of Hassinger Hall, I’ve always appreciated the beauty of Seibert, which happens to be a historical landmark.  Additionally, the student rooms have carpeting.  And I stumbled upon the atrium lounge when I got lost once (yes, I am an embarrassing freshman) and it just looked so cool.  At the same time, I shouldn’t limit myself to these options because I haven’t even stepped into some of the other residences. 

As I look to this future, I’m aware of how much I’ll miss Hass.  Living there comes with ups and downs, like any place does.  One major down: the lengthy treks to the campus center, Deg.  No matter any downs though, even those to come, it’s still sad that I’ll never be able to experience this particular environment ever again—the environment of my (so far) really awesome first year of college.

Posters: A Dorm Room Essential



A blurry picture of my poster

At the beginning of the year, my dorm room was a bit disgraceful, lacking in something quintessential and collegiate—posters.   



I didn’t happen upon any that struck me as just right, and I was very much set on finding the perfect posters.  Not any cliché Audrey Hepburn/Marilyn Monroe/James Dean kind of thing.  Something representative of me, though so representative that, say, my Jonas Brothers interest might scare away potential friends.  I couldn't even find something when the poster fair came to SU.       

On a weekend shopping trek, I finally came across what was to be my First College Poster—a Disney Princess poster from WalMart.  One of the jokes among my friends, particularly earlier in the year, was that I can be a Disney Princess sometimes, so obviously I felt called to it.  Even now, many discussions come back to Disney.  My friend Lindsey and I spent a whole lunch rehashing what Disney characters all our friends would be.  I’m Snow White, by the way.  Accidentally, I grabbed a different Disney Princess poster than the one I saw on the rack, but luckily I ended up preferring the one I purchased. 

I didn’t get my next poster until Winter Break.  It’s a Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows poster and far from perfect.  I often lament how it minimizes Ron Weasley, who is so much more important than the movies and commercials would lead one to believe.  Still, it’s a great representation of my interests.  At heart, and truthfully at the surface, I am quite the Harry Potter fangirl.



Also featured on my walls are a colored-in princess, deemed Princess Megan, from a Saturday afternoon early in the year, spent with coloring books and a few friends in the lounge.  My tack board features a photo of Darren Criss, printed out for me some months ago by my lovely roommate Sarah.  If you’re not in the know (but if you know me, I’m sure you are), Darren Criss is the star of YouTube hits A Very Potter Musical and A Very Potter Sequel and is a relatively new cast member of Glee.   Additionally, I have a drawing with my name on it from one of my best friends at home.  

Typing up this post, it really is clear to me that your walls can reveal a lot about you.



Unfortunately, I don’t have enough wall space to reveal quite as much as I might like.  One of the things about Hass is that the rooms vary in size.  My room is on the smaller, a.k.a. smallest, side and requires bunked beds for space, which means sacrificing room for posters.  Other rooms in Hass provide ample opportunity for self expression, however.  For example, my friends Lindsey and Alexis seem to have posters on every inch of wall.  Their poster count must dwarf my room’s dinky total of two.  However, I think it’s just enough to let people know what I am: a Harry Potter loving princess.

Okay, well, maybe that’s not me exactly. 

But that must describe some part of me, at least. 

School Size

I know many people who were, or still are, desperate to go to big school. Colleges of Susquehanna’s size I’ve often heard derided as too small. Perhaps my feelings will change senior year if I know just about everybody in my class (as a freshman, I’m far from that), but for now, I am very thankful for the size of Susquehanna’s institution. For me, it’s a perfect fit.

This size impacts a lot of different facets of Susquehanna. One of these is housing. I live in the smallest residence hall for freshmen, Hassinger Hall, and if you couldn’t already tell through my earlier posts, I absolutely love it! The floors in Hass are divided into wings by gender. I know the names of everybody who lives on my floor, am pretty friendly with all the girls in my wing, and have gotten my core of Susquehanna friends there.

It’s hard for me to imagine living in one of the bigger freshman dorms, much less a freshman dorm at a large university. One of my best friends from home lives in a building that is, I believe, 23 floors. She must endure long waits for the elevator and lines for signing in with building security.

Another area that’s obviously affected is class size. This semester, my Tuesday/Thursday classes, Applied Biblical Ethics and Principles of Sociology, are significantly bigger than my Monday/Wednesday/Friday ones, Introduction to Creative Nonfiction and Thought & Civilization. The first is a workshop class with about 16 people. The latter has a few less than that. The great thing is that even my “big” classes must be around 30-something people. This pales in comparison to big classes at other school where hundreds of students are crowded into a lecture hall, basically going anonymous to their classmates and professors.

Also, I like that the campus is small enough that I will see people I meet around school! For example, one of the activities I’m involved in is InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. At a bigger school I might not see people I know from that activity around campus, unless I specifically made plans with them, but here it’s very likely I might see someone during my everyday routine and say hi in passing.

For me, a smaller school has always been my ideal, and I’ve been very grateful to find that what I suspected would suit me actually does. It may not be for everyone, but I still feel that as if people who write off smaller schools should definitely consider their virtues, especially for ease in adjusting to the college experience.

Spring Semester

Today is the first day of the Spring Semester, and in some ways, it is surreal being back.  Winter Break was relaxing, but as I had feared, boring after a while.  Post-Christmas and especially Post-New Years, I was itching to return to Susquehanna.  I couldn't wait until I was back in Hassinger Hall again, with friends and fun available just a few doors down the hall.  Admittedly, I'm not as excited to start classes.  The feeling is more anxious than anything else, with a mix of surprise.  My thoughts are something along the lines of: What, I'm actually back, what, I have classes tomorrow, wait, what, now I have classes today, I have class in less than an hour and a half, what, when did this occur?!  All in all, I am glad to be back, but it's strange adjusting to a new routine, when I was so well-adjusted to my old one.  Speaking of adjusting, I also need to fix my sleep patterns--break was spent staying up and waking up late.  To my surprise, I handled waking up for work today fairly well. 

Whether I'm ready or not, the semester is here, and these are some of the things I'm hoping to accomplish the second half of the year:

1)  Keep up with my New Year's resolution.
2)  Write more often, and not just for my Intro to Nonfiction class.
3)  Read more often, and again, not just for class.
4)  Enlarge my social circle at Susquehanna.  Meet new people!  Make new friendships!
5)  Get involved in new activities, like Alpha Phi Omega, the service fraternity, or a reading board for a literary magazine.
6)  Procrastinate less.
7)  Study more.
8)  Cut down on my addition--fries!  

The last three seem especially difficult so we'll have to see how they go.  Hopefully not the way of my resolution at the beginning of the year to eat breakfast everyday (it's been such a rare event that one of the few times I had breakfast at Benny's, I felt compelled to take a picture with my cell phone).

Other things I'm looking forward to this semester are experiencing a schedule that was completely picked out by myself and having people visit me.  I live a bit over an hour away so two of my friends from high school will be visiting me next month.  My brother, who is twenty-five, will also be visiting me in February.  I can't wait to give them a peak at my life here at SU!

Approaching Thanksgiving Break

As I start this blog entry, I'm about 3 hours away from Thanksgiving break, which can seem a little unfair as I know people who got to leave on Monday or over the weekend.  Me and many of my fellow students have talked jealously of other schools, like Penn State, where break started on Friday.  As much as I might whine about the shortness of this break, however, all in all I had a pretty good weekend that I'm glad I didn't miss.

Friday night was the 80s party at TRAX.  My friends and I began getting ready early, mainly because we didn't have much else to do.  I didn't have 80s clothing, so I borrowed a pink Star Wars shirt and gray leggings from my friend Karen.  Annie lent me fluorescent socks to add to the 80s look.  The most quintessentially 80s aspect of my appearance was my hair, which Karen wrangled into an impressively enormous side ponytail (the enormous part came naturally, sans any teasing).  When we first arrived at TRAX, which was admittedly early, the place was pretty empty, but soon things picked up.  We danced our night away to 80s tunes and belted out "Living On A Prayer" and "Don't Stop Believing," among other songs.  

Saturday my friend Jill picked me up to go shopping, and we headed over to the mall on the strip.  I bought the most adorable pajama pants at Maurice's.  It was significant that I bought anything, since usually on shopping trips I'm the one who goes away empty-handed.  Later that night, my friends Karen, Lindsey, and I headed over to Charlie's Coffeehouse for a "Charlie Brown Thanksgiving."  This was my first time at Charlie's, much to the shock and dismay of my friends.  Somehow I had never gone any of the times other people on my floor had.  I was very impressed with the atmosphere and enjoyed having a soft pretzel as I watched Charlie Brown force his dog into making his friends Thanksgiving dinner.  That same night, I ordered some Dominos and stayed up late with my friends talking.

The low-point of the weekend occurred when I experienced my first fire alarm at Hass, approximately at 3:40 something in the morning.  I must have been asleep for about a half hour when it sounded.  It wasdisconcerting, though my first thought was that it was my alarm waking me.  We dashed out of the building.  I was wearing slippers and fell on the steps.  Luckily, we all got out alright, though it was pretty cold and spirits weren't exactly jovial.  On the bright side, I was wearing aforementioned adorable pajama pants.

Sunday improved from there and was, all in all, a relaxing day.  I went to chapel service at 11.  Chaplain Radacke performed a great one-person play about Christ the King.  Afterwards, a friend I sat by at chapel accompanied me to brunch in the caf.  Later, Karen and I went to see our friend Kathleen in her band concert, which was really great.  Then the three of us and a friend from InterVarsity Christian Fellowship headed over to the Church of  the Nazarene to help with Christmas decorations.  We assembled a fake tree and decorated it.  We also got some really great food while we there; the sugar cookies were delicious. 

Monday almost felt as if it was part of the weekend, since I only had one class, compared to my usual four.  I had a great time going to Lutheran Student Movement, and I also got to watch some of my favorite TV show Freaks and Geeks with my awesome roommate Sarah.

Even though I do wish our Thanksgiving break was longer, I had a good time with the days I was here that some other students weren't.  Now bring on break!

The Social Evolution of a College Freshman

Being a college freshman is weird.  There’s no way getting around it.  You can call it good weird, bad weird, or in between, but no matter how you slice it, you’re still dealing with establishing yourself socially.  This is even weirder considering where you last were: a high school senior.  I was pretty grounded in my group of friends by that point.  I wasn’t going out and looking for other people to get to know, though if those people came along that was fine as well.  College, however, is going back to the beginning.  I haven’t been back to the beginning, at least to this extent, since 2^nd grade, when I moved to Pennsylvania from Virginia.  Since then, I’ve been able to carry elementary school friends into middle school, then middle school ones into high school.   I’ve always had someone—and while those high school connections haven’t left me, I still, in some ways, came to Susquehanna with a blank slate (excluding my wonderful roommate who I had met at a summer writing workshop).   

During orientation weekend, panic set in.  At least for me.  I needed friends.  I was starting all over.  I couldn’t do this.  Could I?

The next step in social evolution for me was making friends with the girls in my hall.  We live together, after all, so it’s pretty natural for us to join together, especially in the face of friendless-ness.   Once we bonded, especially over the first non-orientation weekend, it was such a relief.  I didn’t expect to have a group of people to hang out with so quickly!

However, another step eventually comes, and it seemed to hit a lot of my friends at the same time as it hit me: realizing a need for relationships outside of the hallway.  Friendships with the people you live with are great, but I think everybody feels that need for a change of pace.  After all, you see a lot of those friends from your floor.  You do live with them, after all. 

I think I’m at the point in my social evolution where I’m hoping to branch out and am getting to know other people.  Right now there are a lot of acquaintances, people I say “Hi” and “How are you?” to if I see them as I cross campus, people who fall into this category of potential friends.   The next step, if I take some action, should be translating acquaintanceship to friendship. 

This step seems to require a bigger leap than the others, but I think it’s probably one of those things that happens naturally with time.  As a freshmen, I would guess friendships evolve, expand, shift, and include new people.

Of course, sometimes my patience isn’t all it could be in this regard.  It’s easy to want those closest of close friendships right away.  A friendship like you have with your best friend back home.  A dynamic like your group had in high school.  These things don’t happen overnight, however.  They require cultivation.  Evolution.  Not spontaneous generation.  

But that’s alright.  Spontaneous can be shallow, and right now, I’m not seeking friendships that will be blown away come next semester.  Like most freshmen, I think, I’m looking for friendships with roots.

Making it to Fall Break



Me in a
lovely Susquehanna
 sweatshirt
at the retreat

Before and even at college, I’ve heard this advice for freshmen: “Don’t go home until fall break.”   I’ve followed this advice, and now I’m eagerly looking forward to tomorrow, when I’ll be on my way home for the first time since my parents dropped me off August 26^th.

Orientation was inevitably awkward, but soon the third floor of my residence hall Hassinger (affectionately known as “Hass”) provided me with great friends.  At Susquehanna I’ve already had many late nights of giggling and talking—and as many late nights trying to finish homework.  I’ve written my first college paper and survived my first nail-biting exam.   I’ve raved at the club on campus, TRAX.  I’ve had my words workshopped by my peers in Tom Bailey’s Intro to Fiction class.  I’ve started my assistantship in Advancement Communications, which has meant writing articles, interviewing professors, doing research, and starting this blog.  And I’ve gotten involved, going to Intervarsity Christian Fellowship, Lutheran Student Movement, and even a Religious Life retreat at Mountain Dale Farms that allowed me a weekend off campus and one of the best views of the stars I've ever had.

Up until this weekend I viewed Fall Break with a certain amount of apprehension.  Home is home, and I love it, truly, but it’s so different from here.  A friend of mine compared college to a constant sleepover where you have to do homework.   So far, I agree.  There’s always that world waiting right outside your dorm room door.  At home, I open my bedroom door to a usually empty hallway with some laundry machines.  Not exactly as thrilling.

I’ve come to realize, though, that a break from the constant whirl of people will be a welcome refresher.  I look forward to spending time with my parents, meeting up with friends from high school, and catching up on all the TV I miss now that I actually have a life.  I want to be relaxed and renewed when I return to campus on Tuesday.   My shock at actually being in college is starting to wear off, and now I’m thrown into the reality of the situation.  Now I’m thrown into making that reality the best it can be.

I am finally excited about Fall Break.  In fact, I'm depending on it. 

That long Winter Break, however...