By Myself

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Living on campus has been an interesting experience for me. For instance, for the first time in my life I’m living on my own. For once, I finally get to be in charge. I don’t have to deal with my parents telling me what to do. I don’t have to deal with waking up early in the morning. I now make the rules. Although just because I’m living on my own doesn’t mean that there aren’t any responsibilities that I have. For example, instead of my mom doing my laundry for me at home, I now must do laundry here on campus. Instead of having my mom clean up after me, I now must clean up after myself.

I am also in charge of me academically. For instance, when I was living at home my mom would always be checking in on me to see if I was doing my homework and studying what I needed to study. Now that I’m living on my own, I am now the one who must check in on myself, to see if I’m doing what I need to do for class. Instead of relying on having my mom waking me up for school in the morning, I must now wake myself up to get to classes on time. I also must be in charge if I’m bringing everything I need for my classes instead of my mom double checking with me if I have everything I need for class. As a result of living on my own and having to do everything for myself by myself, I feel more prepared for adulthood.

Getting Used To

Living in the dorms has been quite an experience for me. When I first moved into my dorm room, I was nervous. I didn’t know what to expect and I couldn’t imagine living far away from home, especially living on my own. Luckily, my first day was a pleasant experience since I already got to reach out and talk to my roommate through Snapchat before we met in person. I also made a new friend who coincidentally lives in the same building as I do. Despite these positive experiences, it still took a bit to get used to living on campus. For example, one day I tried going to a bingo event at the University Union. Because I was new to living on campus, I had trouble finding the building. Then I figured I would try walking back to my dorm before I got too lost. However, doing so just got me even more lost. Luckily, I was able to find an older student who showed me my way back to the building.

As time went on, and the more and more I got used to living on campus, I started to really enjoy living on campus. I finally was able to find where the University Union building was on my own. I was able to walk back to my dorm building on my own without getting lost. Also, my roommate and I have been getting along great and at this point I would even consider my roommate my friend. My roommate and I also have been doing various things such as going to Walmart to buy some supplies. I also bought myself some Halloween candy and some movies. We also went to see Saw X in the movie theater and went to Spirit Halloween so I could buy myself a Michael Myers mask. And my roommate and I will also play pool with our friends who live in our dorm building. Therefore, I would say that my experience living on campus has been a great one. It just takes getting used to.

 

Don’t Be Scared

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Don’t Be Scared

            When I first thought about college, I was worried. I thought that college would be super difficult and stressful. For example, I thought that there would be a ton of homework that I would have to complete. I also thought that the homework we would be doing would be super difficult to do. I was also worried that I would have to stay up until 6:00 a.m. just to get my homework done. I was worried about adjusting to living on campus instead of home. I mean sure it’s nice not having my parents tell me what to do anymore, but would I miss living in my home? Something else I was also afraid of was that, would I get along with my roommate? Or would there be problems that I would have with my roommate? What about making new friends? Would I be able to make new friends?

Now that I am roughly about four weeks into college, I realized that college is not as terrifying as I thought it would be. The classrooms are not super big, and the classes aren’t super difficult. The amount of homework is not too bad. I mean sure there is a good amount of homework, however, I would consider it to be the same amount as someone would get in high school. The homework is not too difficult to understand, and I haven’t had to stay up until 6:00 a.m. doing homework. And as it turns out, I’ve adjusted to life on campus just fine. Sure, it was weird at first being far away from home, and it was weird having my own place for once. However, I found out that adjusting to college is just like adjusting to high school. For example, I remember my first day of high school and I was terrified. I had no idea what to do and I thought that high school would be insanely complicated. However, the more I went, the more I adjusted, the easier and better the experience was for me. And as it turns out my roommate and I are getting along just fine. I have also been making new friends and I try to get the chance to talk with them every day I can. So, my advice to any newcomers to college that are scared or worried is, just take it one day at a time, and it can be a great experience for you.

 

Works cited.

Image from: “450 Free CC0 Calm Stock Photos.” StockSnap, stocksnap.io/search/calm. Accessed 6 Oct. 2023.