#FreshmanProblems: Our Contributors Reveal Their Freshman Experiences

 
Sariha Moyen
Hometown:  Akron, OH
HC Position:  Contributor, Campus Cuties

#ShamelessSleeping
I walked in as an overconfident freshman, graduating as salutatorian of my high school class with an extreme diligence for academics.  Coming into college with freedom in afternoon classes, staying up late to socialize, and endless procrastination was exciting.  Needless to say, my overzealous joy in this newfound freedom made my sleep/wake schedule rather awkward and inconvenient.  I trudged to class through heavy lids even to my 11 AM classes, staying up the night before until 4 AM, carelessly wasting time with my friends in the 3^rd floor lounge of South Quad.  Homework became a trivial chore, it would eventually get done, but who would know whether it was done at 8 PM or 2 AM?  However, my diligent nature still fought through by forcing me to attend every lecture for every class, no matter how helpful or unhelpful it was.  During the springtime, it especially became a chore to attend class rather than spend my free time laying outside in the soft, warm grass, surrounded by the aroma of freshly bloomed flowers, the sun’s warm rays coating my face. 

One of the few times where my diligence in lecture weakened was on St. Patrick’s Day.  My friends and I had decided to go out after classes, and my last class painfully lasted until 4:30 PM.  As I walked into the huge Dennison auditorium for my Anthrolinguistics course, to my astonishment, 10 students occupied the normally 100 or so-filled auditorium seats.  I shouldn’t really have been so surprised since it was St. Patrick’s Day, but I thought more people would have tried to pretend to care and shown up to lecture while shamelessly surfing Facebook.

At that moment, I was tempted to leave.  No one would have noticed.  I could have pretended to make a mistake in entering the wrong class.  But, I chose to be responsible and sat down in the 5^th row, my usual spot in class.  As soon as the professor started her 1 ½ hour lecture, within 30 minutes, a wave of sleepiness had hit me.  I’d taken short naps in the class before, but not when all 11 of us were clearly visible.  I didn’t want to seem disrespectful or like a slacker, so I started doodling to stay awake.  I had ingeniously decided not to bring my laptop, so that I’d be more focused, but I was heavily regretting that decision at that moment.  The doodling did little to break my drowsiness, and before I knew it, my eyes mercilessly shut.

All of a sudden, I woke up to the sound of a voice.  My eyes opened to our professor lecturing a mysterious someone through her microphone about sleeping.  I tentatively looked around the class, until she said “I’m talking to you” and made direct eye contact with me.  “You can sleep in my class, but you can’t snore in my class,” she said with an amused smile.  Horrified, I slumped further and further into my seat, wishing I could just melt into the ground.  After class, a few of my oh-so-nice friends that sat in the back of the lecture hall had told me I’d been snoring for a good 10 minutes or so before the professor had decided to say something.  I’m not sure I returned to her lectures after that day, due to my deep-set embarrassment.  And to this day, I have not fallen asleep in another class, for fear of my obnoxious snores betraying me!

Lizzie Mac
Hometown:  Grand Rapids, Michigan
HC Position:  Contributor, Campus Celebrities

Fun Fact:  Her guilty pleasure is the show “Extreme Couponing.”

#workstudy….actually fun?

 Work Study jobs can suck – and I mean really, really suck. Some entail filing, upon filing, upon slave work in an office, but my experience as a server in the Mary Markley Hideaway (my dorm) was the best job I ever had (and will ever have)!  Beyond occasionally stealing a chicken finger or mozzarella stick in the backroom, we would just jam out and dance in our aprons in public all day and night. Afterwards, we had our own “Hidey” hang out seshes and get-togethers. The Hideaway has become the goofiest group of people I’ve ever met but also my second family. Being paid $9 an hour to hang out with your best friends? I’ll take it.