As time draws closer to the end of the school year, I become more and more shocked each day by how quickly my first year at Denison flew by. It seems like just yesterday I was anxiously packing my bags in my home bedroom, my mind racing with worries of infinite ways my freshman year could end up being disastrous. What if I don’t make friends? What if I don’t get along with my roommate? What if my classes are too hard? What if the homesickness is just too much to handle?
Although all these worries were valid, looking back I’ve learned that it is very unrealistic any of them will actually occur. That’s not to say that I never struggled in college, because it was in fact a rollercoaster at times, and I sense that as I get older it will only become more challenging. But with a touch of perseverance and becoming accustomed to pushing myself outside my comfort zone, this has easily been one of the best years of my life (and it can be for you, too!).
So, after scrolling through my camera roll and Snapchat memories to help me brainstorm memories and lessons I’ve learned, I came up with ten things I took away from my first year on The Hill.
1. The idea that your first friends won’t stick isn’t necessarily true
I remember seeing all over TikTok that the first friends I make in college won’t be the friends that last. Although this can be true for many people, I learned that it’s important not to walk in with this mindset. I am still friends with the majority of the individuals I met within the first few days of being on campus, and am even rooming with some of them next year.
2. Freshman year relationships are unlikely
Watching my parents’ marriage stem from an early college relationship, I walked into Denison thinking it would be the start of my very own love story. But looking back at my first year here, it played out much differently than I had hoped (which is honestly a good thing). College asks for a ton of adjustment, so I learned that it’s okay to be fairly romantically uninvolved throughout my first year, if not the majority of a collegiate career. After all, we’re still discovering who we are as people. College isn’t the end-all-be-all of relationships, and there is so much life ahead of us to meet new people.
3. Organization is key
Whether it’s through a notebook planner, Google Calendar or Google Keep, or something as simple as a post-it, I learned very quickly that in order to be as efficient and productive as possible, I needed to solidify a consistent and reliable mode of organization for assignments, exams, and meetings.
I quickly learned that college classes are much different than that of high school, where we are not constantly being reminded of due dates and exams. Students are responsible for remembering these dates and being prepared for them, which is really hard to do without some sort of planning system.
4. Mediocre dining hall food calls for an adventurous diet
Personally, I don’t think the food at Denison is all that bad. There are four different options for where to eat, and being able to check the menus to see what is being served for dinner is a major plus. Amongst these four places (Curtis, Huffman, Slayter, and Slivy’s), there will always be access to the staples of a college student’s diet: pizza, pasta, salad, and sandwiches.
But even aside from these staples, I’ve learned that college food can be pretty enjoyable as long as I keep an open mind and am willing to try new things. Recently, there was a Brazilian Steakhouse themed night at Huffman, which I had never tried before and end up loving. So, I’ve really started to pick up on the importance of not letting unfamiliar foods push me away. If you aren’t willing to try new things, college food will certainly be much less enjoyable.
5. College allows you to start over
A few weeks before I departed for Denison in August, I was talking with my grandpa (a retired college professor), and he gave me a really inspiring piece of advice that has stuck with me throughout my first year here. He said: “College gives you the opportunity to start over. You can decide to be whoever you want, whether it is completely different than who you are now, or exactly the same”. No one, or at least very few people at Denison knew anything about who I was coming into the school year. Although I’d say I stuck pretty similar to who I was in high school, knowing I had the freedom to recreate myself was very reassuring.
6. Homesickness is real
As much as I wanted to deny the fact that I would miss my mom and dad, homesickness hit me like a truck very quickly into first semester. I couldn’t sleep very well, I had no appetite, and after all the exhausting Aug-O activities, my social and emotional batteries were so drained that I just wanted to crawl in bed and stay there for the whole night. After all, you’re in a completely new place while barely knowing anyone, so it makes sense that we’d all be longing for the comfort of our homes (and for me, my dogs). An important thing I learned to keep in mind throughout the process is that I am not alone in homesickness, because even if other people seem to be having a blast at the start of the year, we’re all dealing with it and venturing through the same journey.
7. You will get sick (whether you like it or not)
If someone didn’t get miserably sick at least once during their first year of college, they’re a walking miracle. I think I spent more time of my freshman year with a stuffy nose or a sore throat than I did without. Personally, I was hit hard by arguably the most prevalent disease in college: mononucleosis. When I came down with it around fall break, I finally understood what people said about freshman year illnesses taking you out. I was sick on and off for weeks, and since then have learned to always keep cough drops, Vick’s, Dayquil/Nyquil, and Kleenex on me at all times.
8. living in a small town is what you make of it
One very common complaint I’ve heard on Denison’s campus is that there is nothing to do. There were definitely times when I found myself drowning in boredom, but I fully believe that with a little creativity, it’s not that hard to come up with fun things to do. My friends and I enjoy thrifting in Heath or Newark, going on walks across campus or on the Granville bike path (JBL speaker in hand, of course), doing arts and crafts, and even just laying outside on a blanket and talking. Denison’s campus can feel pretty isolating at times, but with Heath and Newark nearby, and Columbus not far away either, I’ve learned that there’s not much more to ask for.
9. naps and Caffeine are your friend
Whether or not we had early classes, the busy schedules and heavy workloads in college wiped my friends and I out most days. As much as I often felt there weren’t enough hours in the day to get my work done, I learned that scheduling a nap into my busy days is a must. Especially this past semester, where I had four classes on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.
Sometimes it wasn’t even the heavy workload or hours spent studying, but it was just staying up late hanging out with friends and chatting the night away. Whatever the reason was, my Keurig was definitely a staple in keeping me energized throughout the day, especially if I didn’t have time for a nap.
10. Your friends will become your family
This is definitely the biggest thing I learned my first year of college. My parents are still best friends with their college friends, and I guess I never really put any thought into why that is. But now after a year at Denison, I finally get it. Even though I’m in a different dorm building from most of my friends, it feels as though we basically all live together. We eat lunch and dinner together, walk to class together, go to the gym, library, or store together, and everything else on top of that. I’ve also had an uncountable amount of sleepovers on my best friends’ futon after nights out. They’ve seen me at my highest, my lowest, and everywhere in between. Although we may get sick of each other every once in a while, I truly see my college friends as my family, because they make me feel most at home.