First Days in University ... and Beyond

People always remember their first day at university: so different from anything they've experienced before. But I think I hold the record in this regard. Not just a new place. Not just a new kind of life. Not just a new city. Not just a new country -- a new continent! Luckily my mother was there for the first week and half to help me out, otherwise, I would have gone batty and panicked.

I arrived in residence and was ambushed by a bunch of intro week staff, all with smiley faces and seemingly endless amounts of energy. Music was booming and people were moving; it was bustling. One of them came up to me, greeted me and whisked me away to my room with my luggage. My luggage had my entire life in it; if it wasn't in my luggage, it wasn't there. That's why I had so much more than everyone else. Eventually things quieted down a little bit. My mom came to see me and helped me unpack. We then had our first house meeting.

This is where I met for the first time the people I would be spending the next 8 months of my life with. I met them and was trying to size them up. At the time, I wasn't particularly confident I was getting it right, but on the whole, as I look back on these people as I know them now, I didn't do too badly.

It just dawned on me then really what was going on. I was in university. Despite all the fun events going on that week, after the music had died, the amigos had left and my mother as well, I would be alone. Sure I would be constantly surrounded by my peers, my classmates, older people, professors, and everyone. But in the end, I was alone, the onus was on me to make sure that I went to my classes as well as did my reading and did all the work that was required to do. That was a scary but exhilarating thought. Not only was all the work load my responsibility, lots of other things were going to be changing. I myself was going to be changing. I knew that the person I would be in 8 months would not be the same as I was right then and there. I was determined to explore new things and learn about things that I had not had the opportunity to learn about before.

The promise I made to myself though, was that however much I changed, I would not change into something that I would dislike. I would not become fake, and I would stay true to myself.

After that heavy philosophical thinking, I decided, “Well, I’ve got one more week of freedom, where I can be free and not worry about things, let's not waste it”. I then threw myself fully into the intro week, and enjoyed it to the fullest, going on in the next years to be an amigo myself. But when the first Monday of classes started, I got down to work.

There were glitches along the way. I was late for my very first seminar. Not a good impression ... haha. I mumbled something to the prof about getting lost, which in fact I had. The campus was a labyrinth, quite hard to navigate when you’re still getting used to it. Luckily, the professor was understanding and said not to worry about it.

There were distractions: for me it was TV. Before I came, where I came from, there was none. In residence I had access to it 24/7 and I took full advantage of it. I watched every show that was on and I did my readings in front of the television. Let me tell you, that doesn't work. It was hard to remind myself that there would be a repeat of that soap I was keeping up with, and that in any case I could always watch it online. Online ... more temptations. But all those friends' Facebook pages will still be there tomorrow too, whereas the deadline for that paper will have expired.

Always, something is going on that seems more immediate and interesting than the current work that has to be done. In residence there will inevitably be some sort of drama. Some people are more interested in their sports team or some other extracurricular activity. For other people it's going out to clubs and bars. While distractions are necessary and fun, it's easy to get caught up in them. I’m not saying don’t go out and have fun. I’m saying don’t let these distractions get so much in the way of your studies that it compromises you. I let this happen to me and my grades took the punch.

There were fears that were unfounded. I had been worried before I came to university that the classes would be impossible and I had this image in my head that professors spoke a foreign language that only an elite, esoteric group could understand. I was mistaken. Profs understand that students are new to university and they try to make it an easy transition for us.

I’m lucky to go to a university where seminars never go above 20 people. I get to speak up in class, and the prof gets to know me. I use seminars to the fullest, and found the courage to speak up a lot, even when I wasn't sure of what I was saying. Profs were almost always very understanding of that, and helped straighten my thoughts out. I felt they were noticing that I was trying hard. And more than once I've been completely lost, gone to see the Prof, and got put back on track.

That being said, we have to step up to the plate and work. Although it's easy to forget, we're here for our education.