As a current sophomore at Ohio Wesleyan University, this is my first time coming back to an already familiar college community. Our classes started Wednesday of last week (which is throwing me off in more ways than one) and being back on campus is honestly totally weird. Don't get me wrong, I love seeing my college friends again, eating at all of the restaurants I haven't been to in four months, living with my utterly incredible roommates and getting back in touch with all of the on-campus activities I'm involved in. At the same time, however, for (at least) the first week of classes everything seems to be in a kind of fog. I genuinely don't think I'm the only one who feels this way, nor do I think that this only applies to my campus. I have a sneaking suspicion that every college student feels just a little bit of the sensation I'm describing at the start of every academic year. Here is why.
Firstly (and this one actually is a campus-specific issue), as I mentioned earlier, the classes at my university started on a Wednesday this year. I think that the reason for this is that the town of Delaware (in which Ohio Wesleyan resides) hosted a portion of an Iron Man competition the weekend before school started. That was great for bringing business to the city, I'm sure, however for students it was not such a great deal. Starting on a Wednesday meant that the entire campus community, students and professors alike, had to spend three days being utterly confused as to what day it actually was. This (as you can probably imagine) was not the most ideal situation for students and faculty who were all getting used to brand new schedules.
Also, campus move-in was two days before the start of classes. If I would have been here unpacking and getting organized a little earlier, I know that I would have felt way less out of it during my first week of classes. I needed at least a week to settle in to my new living arrangement and set everything up in my room. What I had was a day and a half. Due to this lack of time everyone on campus was (understandably) a little bit frantic and not quite in it to win it the first week back, as they tried to balance unpacking with figuring out their classes and social life.
On top of that, back on campus you experience familiar yet completely-different-from-your-summer-home people, places, and occurrences. Everything feels both new and old at the same time, which can be incredibly disorienting. The summer vacation simultaneously feels like it never existed and like it lasted for nine straight years. You're convinced you might have dreamed it, like it never actually happened at all.
Another part of being back on campus that is extremely strange is the fact that last year’s seniors are not there anymore. You walk into their normal hangouts expecting to see their faces smiling up at you, only to find that they're not there. Not only is this sad, but it's made me very confused on more than one occasion. I also keep mistaking random people for last year’s seniors and puzzling myself (and those around me) even more.
Conversely, it's also weird that there are so many freshman that you've never seen before that go to your university now. I swear, I only ever see freshman on campus these days. I think that part of it must be that I live in a dorm building with an entire freshman floor. Also, since the freshman haven't found their own hangout places yet, they're using all of the really popular and public ones. It's completely bizarre, going to a small liberal arts college where everyone knows everyone and suddenly not knowing around 500 people.
Lastly, during the first week back, everyone on campus is trying to figure out their new schedules. This definitely includes professors, too. One of my roommates told me that her professor was half an hour late to the first class because her schedule was different from last semester. Which is understandable, honestly, because nobody really has much of an idea of where they're going until a couple of weeks in. This definitely adds an air of nervous energy to campus, especially during the day, when everyone has classes to attend.
Regardless of all the strangeness, I have to say that I'm unbelievably glad to be back at school. I can already tell that so many of the friends I’ve met at OWU are my forever kind of people and I know we're about to embark on a new year full of memories to last a lifetime. I can't wait to get to know the new people on campus and really get into the swing of things with everything I'm doing this year. Here's to a great semester, everyone!
