The 411 On College Orientation

Question of the Day: What brand of water do you drink? Do you think the different brands really matter all that much?

Sorry for the lateness! Orientation really wore me out and so I've just been resting the past couple of days. I can't really sum up all the puzzle pieces that make up College Orientation in just one blog post, so I'll briefly go over just a few of the highlights:

1) The first day was all about preparation for the second day (aka Registration for Classes Day).

2) It was literally session after session after session...two hours on alcohol abuse, thirty minutes on meal plans and dining services, one point five hours on campus safety. Don't get me wrong, all that stuff is important and I learned a lot, but honestly, after that fifth session of simply sitting in my seat in the Auditorium and nothing else, my legs were about to start jerking and convulsing at any second.

3) Registration for classes is probably one of the most stressful events I have ever experienced. We were under a timed schedule and only had an hour and a half to pick out all of the classes we were interested in and make a schedule that wasn't too crowded and was evenly balanced between Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Tuesdays and Thursdays and gave us enough time to study, eat, sleep, and breathe.

4) All that stressing out in #3 was 95% probably for nothing because almost all schedules that are created at College Orientation/Registration are changed after the semester begins. Apparently students drop and add classes faster than they swat flies.

5) College is nothing like high school. I mean, I knew that even before I went to Orientation, but I lived it on Monday and Tuesday. Sure, some things never change (like the relationship between male and female) ...but a lot do (like having to live in a cubicle with somebody you've never met before).

6) Sleeping in a dorm room with somebody you don't know is actually very odd. You suddenly are extremely aware and self-conscious of your daily habits and begin to realize that maybe sleeping with your stuffed monkey isn't so cool.

7) College dining halls have much better food than high school cafeterias.

8) Your keys and your ID card become your life. I was only at Orientation for two days and the one thing I did most often (most often = every five minutes) was scramble around in my bag to check that my room key and ID card were still there. It's not like your key and card have legs or anything, but after a while you get so paranoid that you make believe they do.

9) Shower shoes (or even Crocs or flip flops) are a must! The grossest thing you can encounter is several pairs of FEET strutting about on the very same floor that thousands of other students' toesies have. Um, ew?

10) The two things that people want to know about you at Orientation are: (A) Your Name and (B) Your Major.

Overall it was relatively boring and I made few friends, but I definitely learned a lot about what college will be like. And if that wasn't the whole purpose of Orientation, then I dunno what was. :)

In addition, tomorrow I will be graduating from high school!! HHHUUURRRAAAYYYY!!!!... to be honest I'm not that excited. I kind of feel like I've already graduated, probably because school itself ended quite a few weeks ago. I'm most excited about going out to eat and my graduation party on Sunday. Photos of yummy food is to come. :) Still working on that character profile, ehh that should probably get posted sometime next week.

Have a great weekend!

~TRA

The 411 On College Orientation

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