I remember my orientation like it was yesterday. All the information sessions we all had to endure together, and the terrifying ice breakers that each of us dreaded having to do. By the end of the first day, I began to think to myself, “Is this what it’s always going to be like?” I myself came from a small part of a huge city and wasn’t able to identify one person from my high school, so this whole ordeal seemed tragically daunting. It seemed to me as if the next year of college was going to be set for me. I imagined a life in which making awkward small talk with complete strangers, and being too scared to talk to anyone, including the older students, was the way college was going to be. Little did I know that I was horribly wrong.
The second I moved in and said a tearful goodbye to my parents, I was welcomed fully into the college life by the RA staff and my peers around me. The change was almost immediate. Yes, the awkward small talk continued, however, the fear that initially accompanied these conversations quickly faded away. I learned right then and there that from orientation to move-in day, you are ready for college.
After being an orientation adviser, I was able to identify with the way the new people felt. At orientation, you are still concerned with things of home, whether it be your present job, some uncertainties about the upcoming year or maybe even the presence of your parents, it seems as though something is holding you back and making the transition to being a college student difficult. The great reality is that once move-in day comes along, those things are all items of the past, not gone completely of course, but they aren’t obstacles in the way anymore. By the time move-in day comes along, you are ready to be a college student.
To those who just completed their orientation or to those who are about to, I offer to you this piece of friendly advice: Don't let anything stop you from having the best year of your life, especially your fears. Every single one of the most important friendships and memories I have made in college have been because I stepped out of the proverbial "comfort zone" and embraced the awkward small talk. It is from the small talk that the best friendships form, and then, much later on in the future, you can each laugh about how terrible it was when you first met. That is the beauty of college, becoming the person you never believed you could be in the midst of all the circumstances of college life. Embrace the awkwardness. Endure the struggle that is freshman orientation because you only have to go through it once. In my opinion, once it is over, it's over, and all that is left is the wonderful solidarity felt among you and your peers who were in the same boat as you at the time. Move in day will be there before you know it.
