Recently I moved in to college, so you know what that means? Freshman Orientation! For our school, the orientation is a week long experience before actual classes start. Which, at first, I was thinking would be really great... And it was, in some aspects. I've met some really cool people, I have a lot of information about basic necessities, I've met my roommate (she's awesome), and there have been some fun events.
The downside though, is all the housekeeping type of information the students have to sit through. With the way our school is set up, not everyone goes to every meeting. So today as I write this, there has been a lot of free time. At first, you might think this is great!
But in your first week of college, you don't know a lot of people and you don't have any assignments... So, what do you do?
I started thinking that, maybe all this free time was bad. I started worrying that I'd just be sitting down and wasting time. But I was proven wrong.
I met some cool people in the same major as me (film) who were also in the same boat. We sat around and talked for a while. To be honest, the time was going by really slow. We had almost 2 hours to kill before lunch, and after lunch we had 3 hours. It was nice, though, it really was.
Oddly, I think this made me sit down and really appreciate breaks. Breaks at home (pre-college) are a lot different compared to breaks at school. I'm so used to just listening to music, watching YouTube videos, or playing guitar. As much as I love doing those things, I really can't do that as frequently here. I can, but those things usually involve me being alone. College is supposed to be fun, interactive, and productive.
When I have free time though, that's when I need to time manage the most. I'm going to be busy with general classes, film classes, crewing on student productions, involving myself in extracurriculars, keeping up with a healthy-ish lifestyle, and many other things I will cross along my path. Free time is important, thats when I actually can get assignments done and see people. Free time won't come across as often as it will this week.
I was able to not only meet some people (and actually spend time with them), but I was also productive in which I wrote this article. It should be a blessing, not something to be taken for granted. As long as I find the right balance of work and fun, time manage properly, and stay on top of everything. I can handle college. Well, maybe I shouldn't be saying that so soon. But hey, having the optimistic attitude will help.