Coming to college, I was very
confused about myself and the world around me. My feelings can probably be
summed up by telling the story of the first time my roommates and I tried to go
to a college party. Although I had been a frequent visitor of Philadelphia
prior to move-in, I had certainly not visited North Philly before, and I did
not have my bearings in the city yet. I was lost in the city, just like a
hummingbird that was also lost in a big city. My new friends and I were
confused about our location and the location of the supposed party, so we just
continued to walk west. Eventually, we ran into a group of Temple Police, who
simply looked at us and said, “Turn around, freshmen! You’re going the wrong
way.” We were so clueless that the police, as well as every college student
sitting on their stoop, could tell we were first semester freshmen. We had no
idea what we were doing in regards of getting to parties, or life. We still
have no idea what we are doing with our lives, but we have become pretty good
at finding parties.
In all reality, I have learned a lot
about myself since coming to college. Something that I learned about myself
when my professors started assigning homework and papers is that I have
terrible work ethic. Try as I might, I always end up watching videos on
YouTube, playing hide and seek with my roommates, or killing video game zombies
with the neighbors when I should be doing work. Then, at midnight the night
before I have an assignment due, I have a panic attack realizing the amount of
work that I have to do. In high school, my work ethic was not great, but the
miniscule amounts of work that I had I was usually able to do during homeroom
and between classes. Writing papers is the worst for me, because I did not have
to do it much in high school, so I procrastinate writing because I am not very
good at it. Having a college workload has made me come to realization that I
need to improve my time management skills. An activity that we did in class
that really helped with that is making schedules. Writing everything out made
me realize how much time I actually have in a day, and how much of it should be
spent on doing schoolwork. Although I was not a fan of planning out every
second of my day, seeing a list of everything that I had to do really helped me
to get it done. I slowly started to improve my time management techniques, and
eventually became the master of time management and work ethic that I am today.
(That’s not true. I’m neither. But I do get all of my work done on time now,
and even finished a research paper 3
days in advance last week, which is a huge feat for me.) I also found that
managing my time well allows me to have more fun, as I have more time and am
not stressed about all the work that I have not done.
Which brings me to my next point:
handling stress. For those of you who do not know, college is a relatively
stressful adventure. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great place, but I’ve felt more
stressed in this past semester than I probably have in my entire life until
this point. Not only are there crazy workloads, but there’s also the stress of
adjusting to new a place and new people, and the pressure to decide what you’re
doing with the rest of your life. Talk about stressful. When we talked about
stress in class, I honestly could not think of anything specific that I do to
relieve stress. I knew I was stressed, but I did not know what to do to make it
better. It must have come to me later in the day when I was singing along to
the radio. Music is what relieves my stress. I had not thought it was a big
deal when I decided to take a semester off from doing anything musical, but I
hadn’t realized how much it actually affects me until I stopped to think about
it. Singing is a hobby that I enjoy very much, but I hadn’t realized it was
more than a hobby. Singing is something that makes me feel good about myself.
Especially when singing in a group, it is satisfying and rewarding when you
work at a song for a while and it turns out really good in the end. Also,
singing releases endorphins, which naturally make you happier. I hadn’t
realized it, but singing is the thing that I use to relieve my stress. I tried
to find other activities that could take it’s place when I’m not able to sing,
such as painting my nails like my partner, Maria, does, but nothing I do is
quite as effective. Next semester, I am definitely going to try to find some
sort of musical group or club to join, but for now I’ll have to live with
midnight jam sessions with my friends, which I guess isn’t so bad. My point is,
I have learned that it is important, even necessary, to have some sort of
activity that helps you when you’re stressed.
Something that I have had fun
learning about this semester is all of the different cultures at Temple. My
small rural down did not have a very diverse population, so when I came to
Temple, it was the most exposure to diversity that I had ever had. My roommate
is Indian, and I think that her culture is fascinating. Also, I absolutely love
Indian food, which her mom constantly brings to our dorm. The food that her
family eats is much spicier than I’m used to, but I’m working on de-sensitizing
my taste buds so I can enjoy it more. I have met many friends of other
cultures, many of whom have parents who are first generation immigrants, which is
pretty awesome. I was excited to be exposed to all of these different cultures
before I came here, and I am glad that have been. But aside from the delicious
ethnic food, it’s not much different than being with my friends from back home,
so props to mom and dad for not making me racist I guess. Actually, the first
time I realized how diverse my environment really is, was after Thanksgiving
break when the holiday season began. Back home, everyone in town would be
preparing for Christmas, no question. But I realized that only about two thirds
of the people in my hallway celebrate Christmas. There are many other cultural
and religious holidays that the others celebrate during the holiday season,
which I think are fascinating.
An important thing that I learned
this semester is how to live with other people. I have a younger brother that I
have lived with my entire life, but living with a brother is a lot different
than living with three random roommates. I have learned that in order to get
along with another person that you share a space with, you sometimes have to
bite your tongue, which is not always an easy thing for me to do. If you let
every little insignificant thing bother you, then you probably will not be able
to live peacefully with another person. Also, I have learned the proper,
respectful way to interact with roommates. For example, if your roommate is
taking too long in the shower and you need to get into the bathroom, an
inappropriate way to deal with the situation would be to yell:
“Swetha! If you don’t get out of the
bathroom in the next five seconds I’m going to throw all of your clothes out
the window!”
A
more appropriate way to handle the situation might be to calmly say:
“Hey, I need to get into the bathroom so
I’d appreciate if you would hurry up.”
I’m
confident that these newfound social skills will help me make great strides in
life.
Being in college, in a new setting
with new people has definitely allowed me to learn a great deal about myself and
about life in general. Being away from home and everything that you’re
comfortable with really gives you a better perspective on life, and a chance to
view things more objectively. I appreciate now more than ever all of the
opportunities I have been given in life, especially the opportunity to go away
to college. I think that after one semester of college, I know a lot more about
myself, but am still as confused as ever, and I guess that’s okay. Although I
wish there was always a figure here to tell me “Turn around, freshmen! You’re
going the wrong way.”, part of the fun is figuring it out for myself.
