ITEMS ON MY COLLEGE CHECKLIST:
1) Survive the first and second weeks of school
2) Go grocery shopping
3) Don’t get lost
4) Wake up in time for classes
5) Adjust to a new school
6) Adjust to a new state
7) Find new friends
As an out-of-state freshman, items on my college checklist tend to pile up. Moving from the hot, sunny Hawaiian Islands to the cold, rainy environment of Eugene proves trying at times. Adding to the disorder of things as a college freshman, I didn’t receive a dorm. Being homeless was all I could think of during the month or so in which I had not secured a place of residency in Oregon. The news I would be living at Stadium Park with other students seemed like the best way out of my housing problems, but not living in the dorms was disappointing to me. Although my friends in the dorms tell me an apartment is much better, the pros and cons tend to even out. Timing going to and from school on the bus, going grocery shopping (since we were not provided with a meal plan), being away from campus, and not getting the full dorm experience are just some of the problems off-campus freshmen face.
Dealing with the transition from being a high school senior to being a freshman is confusing, and you often feel lost. It’s hard to make new friends, especially when it seems like everybody else already has friends and no one needs more. Finding the courage to meet new people and engage in conversations with them is the first step to not feeling so lost. By making new friends and meeting new people, I now know other people feel just as lost and confused as I do.
Another major transition as a freshman is coping with moving away from home, and the changes from Hawaii to Oregon. The climate change is pretty drastic; freezing cold at the homecoming football game at 42 degrees is a major change from the average 70-degree weather in Hawaii. Joining various clubs and activities helps with the adjustment process – I breathed a sigh of relief at the first Hawaii Club meeting. It’s nice to know other people who knew what it was like to change from wearing shorts and T-shirts to puffy jackets.
Being away from my parents and friends is very challenging at times. Sometimes I feel like giving up and booking a plane back to Hawaii. Sometimes I wonder whether I made the right decision in choosing Oregon. But if anything, venturing outside the borders of my home has allowed me to experience things I probably would’ve never experienced otherwise. The challenges can be overwhelming but the experiences are worth it. I find these experiences can only be felt once in a lifetime. As I slowly adjust it gets easier, but never easy, to transition, changing what I can and accepting what I can’t.
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