Saturday, September 3 – The minivan is loaded up with my belongings and it waits in the driveway for morning to arrive. Tomorrow is move-in day and almost all of my stuff is packed and ready to go, but I’m not. My nerves are getting to me. Tomorrow marks my first day on campus of a new school. I’ve done this college thing before; for two years to be exact, but very little has prepared me for tomorrow.
Sunday, September 4, 2016 – Move in day was pretty interesting. It began with me packing the last of my stuff into my mom’s gold Chrysler Town and Country. I made sure to take a Thelma and Louise-style selfie in front of the van before setting out on the open road. I’m ready to start a new chapter in my life. After an hour-long drive, I get down to UW - Whitewater and my parents and I start unloading the van. My tiny dorm room was so cramped with all of the various sized totes and boxes, but it began to feel like home as soon as everything was unloaded.
Now that I have time sit down, relax and reflect, I think that my goal for this coming week is to not sound like Phoebe from The Magic School Bus. She was always comparing life at her old school to life at Walkerville Elementary when on an educational adventure with Ms. Frizzle and the gang. I want to spend this week living in the moment because I will never have another week like this again.
Monday, September 5th, 2016– At this point, it should be worth noting that I haven’t really interacted that much with other transfer students. I’m the only transfer on my floor and I haven’t been able to interact with anyone else outside that group. However, that all changed today. UWW puts on an event alongside their new freshman event for transfer students. I’ve never heard of a university doing that. We got to listen to a motivational speaker, do team-building exercises and most importantly meet other transfer students. It feels good to know you’re not alone. At the end of the day, we gathered outside of the football stadium to attend R U Purple, which is when the new freshmen and transfers become full-fledged Warhawks.
Tuesday, September 6th, 2016 – UWW sure does know how to treat its new students right. After a day of festivities that included Convocation and a picnic, we got to see rapper T-Pain perform live. The energy given off was amazing and it will carry on throughout the semester. Because of this I am becoming less and less “homesick” for Drake and starting to feel how I should – like a student of UWW.
Wednesday, September 7th, 2016 – Today is the first day of classes for the semester! My first class of the day is an art history course. I was pleasantly surprised as there were about two or three other transfer students in the class. Perhaps being a transfer isn’t as odd or rare as I thought it was. I’ll have to get to know these other transfers better.
Thursday, September 8th, 2016 – I haven’t done anything related to my major (electronic media) before this, so I wasn’t sure if I would really like it or not. It turns out that I like my new major much more than my old one at Drake.This week has been exhausting, but it was worth every second. The future looks bright and I’m excited to see what the rest of the semester will bring.