Ahh, the summer before freshman year. A time of panic, excitement, and questioning whether everything you’re doing is wrong.
Through all this emotional turmoil you were going through, you’re forced to show up to campus at seven in the morning for orientation with a bunch of strangers who you’re about to start going to school with. And then what’s the first thing you see when you show up? A bright-eyed, wide-awake orientation leader doing the Milly Rock to a song from 2016 asking you what major you plan on devoting your next four years to.
I am not ashamed to say that I, indeed, was an orientation leader this past summer and it’s as shocking to myself, even now, as it was to my friends and family. Me, being notable for my introverted-ness and not always being a fan of humans on my bad days, became an orientation leader for a massive university that welcomes at least 5,000 freshman students a year? Definitely still kinda think it was a fluke with HR, but whatever.
I just want to make a disclaimer that as an orientation leader, we are well aware of how obnoxious and over-enthusiastic we are being at seven in the morning. It’s part of the job description. If you know me personally, I am definitely not dancing and smiling any day of the week before eleven. If I happen to even be awake at seven I am not a happy camper and will most likely be giving you a very crude hand gesture if you were the culprit who woke me up.
Yet somehow I decided to devote my entire summer, seven straight weeks, to wake up at 5AM and spend twelve hours a day welcoming guests to the University of Kansas. What the hell was I thinking? This takes school pride to a whole new level, I guess. No, I did not Milly Rock or do any kind of dance at all whatsoever. However, I did heavily judge my coworkers doing the Woah in the corner during lunch and tried not to sink into the floor with second-hand embarassment. They think it made them charming, I think it made them look catastrophically cringey, but apparently it’s a “subjective” topic.
Throughout the summer I was asked questions about the bars by cheeky guys, dealt with parents who had to be back in Minnesota by four for a wedding that happened to fall on the day they scheduled their student’s day-long orientation, and got many side eyes and sighs as I handed out the university’s common book for all first year students. I learned the impact of what respecting a person’s pronouns can really mean to someone, especially when they’re beginning this new part of their life in an unfamiliar enviroment and they hear someone refer to them in the manner they prefer for the first time. I didn’t ever really process how something so little and simple could have such a positive effect for someone before.
This crazy obnoxious job made me step far out of my comfort zone, at least a football field away from the zone, but it was hella worth it. It feels worth it when I’m on campus and see the freshman that was too nervous to introduce themself in our student groups walking with a big cluster of friends and being the center of attention.
When I really didn’t want to get out of bed, or was mentally drained from being exhaustingly happy for twleve hours of the day, or I had my sick week and like Emily in The Devil Wears Prada had to convince myself that I did in fact love my job and remind myself that going into an allergy-induced coma was sub-par for my normal theatrics, I was doing it for the student who got out of their shell and the student who was finally addressed correctly for the very first time in their life.
I remind myself all the time that what we did mattered, more to some than others.
Somehow this massive, sometimes pessimistic introvert was chosen out of a large list of applicants to do a very important thing this summer for my school. At first I was hesitant, could I really be the one to start a freshman flash mob a 8AM? (Disclaimer: that never happened, I would have somehow gotten myself fired that day if it had been on the schedule.)
In the end, I did it and sometimes when I’m not weary from school I kind of miss it a little. It was crazy and fun and exhausting, but it was probably the best job I’ll ever have.