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18 Stages of Coming Back to JMU as told by The Office

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at JMU chapter.

1. “I still have time to shop and pack,” you tell yourself one week before you leave

2. Spending countless hours with your mom at Bed, Bath, and Beyond

 

 

3. Holding back the tears as you say goodbye to your pet

 

4. Trying to fit everything you packed into your car

 

 

5. The butterflies you feel in your stomach when you see the Exit 245 sign or ECL emerging over the horizon

 

 

6. Dripping in sweat when you have to make ten trips up stairs to your dorm room/apartment on the hottest day in August

 

 

7. When you first see the friends you spent all 3 and a half months of summer missing

 

 

8. Those amazing days of FROG week where you get all of the good parts of college without any of the bad

 

 

9. Working most of the summer means your tolerance has severely declined since last semester

 

 

10. Realizing the paycheck from your summer job is going to buy you two textbooks and one week’s worth of groceries

 


 

11. Planning to set the tone of the semester with a cute first day outfit even though you know in two weeks it’ll be back to running shorts and tank tops

 

 

12. Seeing all the new freshman on campus and wondering why they are so young looking. Or maybe you just got old…

 

 

13. Everyone on campus looking like they just got back from a tropical vacation while you’re still paler than Casper the ghost

 

 

14. Expecting to only go over the syllabus for the first day and 10 minutes into class the professor starts lecturing

 

 

15. Walking into your first class and seeing a friend you had no idea was also enrolled in the class

 

 

16. Or, on the flip side, walking into class and knowing nobody and having no idea where to sit or how to act oh god this is going to be the worst class ever

 

 

17. Getting back into a good sleep pattern aka finding the times between classes you can take a new nap

 

 

18. Missing some of the free time you had over the summer, but being ecstatic to be back with your best friends at the best place on earth!

 

JMU alumni making her way into the "real" world. Passion for spending time with my large Italian family, running and eating any and all desserts I can get my hands on.
Aleixka has a B.A. in Media Arts and Design and a minor in Spanish from James Madison University. She loves all things books, traveling, food, and photography.