Everything still feels surreal, although I’ve been at Rutgers since Friday.
I’ve had a crazy, exhausting past six days. They’ve been both exhilarating and stressful, and I’ve both laughed until my stomach hurt and cried until my throat was sore. I’m FINALLY relaxing in my dorm—the beautiful Jameson H on Douglass.
The past few days have been rough but rewarding. I’ve been stranded on College Ave past 2 A.M. (twice), gashed my heel, and broken out in hives from mosquito bites. I’ve also reconnected with a lot of childhood friends, met Mary Doria Russell (author of The Sparrow), felt true Scarlet Knight pride, and fell in love with the Douglass Residential College all over again (shout out to my hallmates in Jameson!).
Part of the reason I chose to come to Rutgers had to do with all the opportunities a large university has to offer. Of course with so much to do, I had to compromise a bit. I missed almost all of the Douglass Orientation activities because of the Honors Program events and I’m missing out on part of the first football game tomorrow because of class, but I thrive on being this busy. It’s never a dull moment here, whether it be exciting or terrifying (like thinking you’re in the wrong lecture hall for class) and though I’ve been really anxious, I have a feeling that this will be one of the most memorable years of my life. After the involvement fair and seeing how many clubs and organizations Rutgers offers, I got super excited and inspired to make the best out of this year.
Yesterday, at my first Honors Program academic meeting, Dean Matsuda asked us to write a letter to future selves in 2014. I wrote about how even though I had a rough start, it will all be worth it later and I’d laugh this all off in four years. I wrote about how I’m excited to finally have free reign of my life and can finally start working towards my career goal in a personal way. I’m excited to start meeting the people I’ll stay in touch with for the rest of my life. I can't wait to look back at these entries four years from now and see how much I've grown.
My hall meeting is about to start—I’ve loved hanging out with the other (fifteen) first-years in my dorm so far while getting so much useful advice and insight from the upperclassmen.
I’ll detail my week in pictures soon!
Location: SinglePost