Fresh Perspective

Freshman, get ready for a whirlwind of emotions these next few months. It’s crazy to think that we’re all on our own, no responsibilities, meeting awesome people and doing whatever we want, whenever we want! Right?

Eh, not so much. Of course, arriving here we’re all anticipating having a great time. But after watching our parents drive off, and having that feeling of total freedom for the first time, I’m sure some of us have gotten cold feet.

 It’s a completely new and sometimes scary environment. Some of us may know people and have friends at school from our hometowns, but some of us could be adjusting to Vermont as the newest state we’re living in. Adjusting is the perfect word to describe what we are going through in the next few months.

There’s the adjustment to harder classes and having to actually participate in academics after our brains were on vacation for three months. There’s time management and learning how to accommodate to the new homework load. There’s adjusting to new roommates, learning our social skills to meet new friends and even living with people you’ve never really met before.

And then there’s all of the free time that we have between classes. There are always going to be pros and cons to this new found freedom, the major pro being we can do whatever we want. And I’m sure all of us, me included, love the idea of being independent, being able to make our own schedules, and sleeping whenever we want.

Awesome, right?

To a point, yes. But then comes the cons, the biggest perhaps being a lack of motivation. Most professors don’t take attendance, yet we are responsible for showing up to class. So obviously, some of us are going to want to skip class after a long weekend of sleeping and hanging out with friends. Or, for example, you’re in bed, drifting off to sleep when you have a class in 30 minutes, with homework that needs to be done in said class. Your motivation then slowly drifts off with your dreams.

Independence is great, but we’re all going to have to get used to the thought of being grown-ups and scheduling actual time for school. I know we can all do it.

The biggest adjustment, for me and probably for a lot of us, will be finding ourselves in this huge mess of people at Castleton. Some of us may be feeling lost, or homesick, or so stressed out that we have doubts about what to do or where to go next in our college career. I hate to do this and get all motivational, but I’m just saying it has to get better from here. We just need to get involved and most importantly keep an open mind. It’s a big world out there and we are taking steps to better our lives before we enter the big world. College is great because we can actually start over with a clean slate, and renew ourselves. We need to get out of that high school mentality, try new things and keep a positive attitude. Sounds cliché, but I’m speaking from the heart here.

There’s a ton of support behind us, we just have to get the courage to take the giant leap into true Spartanism. Keep your head up freshies! It only gets better from this point on. Here’s to adjusting!

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