Since it’s a few weeks into the Spring 2022 semester, I thought it would be a good time for me to reflect on how my first semester at TCNJ (Fall 2021) ended up going for me, and what I’m thinking about doing differently this semester.
Welcome week
First off, I wanted to talk about how Welcome Week went for me. Welcome Week was quite chaotic, with all the events going on and all the new people I was meeting all at once. It was also a little chaotic in the fact that I had to get used to living in a dorm—where I had no air conditioning in my sweltering hot room, along with showers that never seemed to warm up. Yet, besides all this chaos, Welcome Week was a good experience for me. I ended up attending some events with my roommate and other floormates, made new friends with my floormates and with people from other floors, and enjoyed getting used to the campus life.
Part of me also felt a little bit lonely at the same time. While I was being social and making new friends, I felt like I needed to be even more social and put myself out there even more. I feel as though this was just me being hard on myself. I told myself that I wasn’t being social enough which led to comparing myself to other people.
Making friends
As for making friends, I found it relatively easy to make friends with my fellow floormates. We would occasionally go to events together, and sometimes eat at Red Berry with each other. I also found it somewhat easy to make friends in my classes as well, and I made friends with people outside of my classes and major through social media and Discord.
academics
Academic-wise, I would have to say that my first semester classes were definitely easier than my classes this second semester. Although I had three classes that involved writing last semester (I’m a Journalism major, I don’t really know what I expected), I managed to balance them equally somehow. However, I do have to note that finals week was quite draining with a final paper, final feature paper, and other writing assignments that were due for one of my journalism classes. Other than finals week, though, I found it not too difficult to manage the workload from my classes in the first semester.
Club(s)
During my first semester at TCNJ, I wasn’t really a part of multiple clubs. In fact, I was actually only involved in Her Campus TCNJ throughout the entirety of the fall semester, but near the end of the semester, I ended up joining another club named PRISM. It’s a pretty laid-back club, with some occasional events where you can just hang out and do activities with other club members. It was always (and still is) a great time hanging out in the PRISM center, especially since some of my friends are involved in that club as well.
Something I definitely want to do this semester is get more involved with clubs that spark my interest, especially regarding clubs that pertain to journalism and writing.
self-care
Lastly, I thought that I should touch up on how I treated myself last semester, and what I might prioritize more this semester. One thing I noticed is that last semester I tended to procrastinate more on assignments (I still procrastinate occasionally this semester.) Because of my procrastination, I would end up finishing assignments late at night and not have enough time to relax and to take care of myself. Sometimes I would even stay up a little bit later at night just so I could have a little time to myself before falling asleep.
This semester, I want to procrastinate less on my assignments and attempt to finish my homework in advance so that I can have more time for myself. So far, I have been doing that this semester, and while I still have my days and weeks where I procrastinate more often, I have managed to carve out some time for myself each day where I can relax and focus on myself for a little bit.
Even though this semester is proving itself to be more challenging than last semester, I’m hopeful that I can get through it in one piece. I’m also hoping that all fellow college students who read this are having a great spring semester. I’m wishing you all the best!