About a year ago this week, I moved in to Nazareth College for my freshman year of college. I was both excited and nervous being six hours away from home and having no one I knew on campus with me. Aside from my fears and anxiety of the situation, I dove right in and tried to acclimate myself in the place that would be my home away from home for the next four years. Move in went smoothly and my dorm was very cute and unintentionally coordinated with my roommate. After my parents left, it was time for all of the jam packed orientation events to begin. Adjusting to talking to all new people and meet a group of strangers that I would be spending most of my first weekend with was very new and uncomfortable for me. Luckily, my orientation leaders were very inviting and super nice. I got along with most of the people in my group, but after the weekend I didn’t really keep in touch with many of them. After the experience with my orientation leaders though, it made me want to be one.
Towards the end of my freshman year it was time to apply to be an orientation leader for the upcoming school year. I filled out the application and got my recommendations for the application. After a week or so I got an email about the group interview, and I was so excited for it. I get to my interview with two other girls beside me and we were taken into an office for the interview. It turns out that one of my orientation leaders was interviewing alongside the heads of the undergraduate association. I was so excited and had a feeling it all went very well in the end.
I wound up getting a position after anxiously waiting a few days to hear back about it! All of the orientation leaders got together to meet and find our who our partners were over a nice dinner. I met my partner and was so excited for everything that was coming our way. We wrote letters to our orientees, with excitement of finding out who they were.
August finally rolled around and it was finally time to move back to campus and begin training for the orientation weekend. I woke up at four in the morning and was back in Rochester after a six hour car ride with my parents. Soon after I moved in to my new dorm room and reconnected with my suite mates, training began and it was a long week from there. With all of the training, I feel like an even more well rounded person and student on campus. I know so much more about the resources available on campus and how to handle different situations that may arise.
Move in day came up so fast for the Nazareth Class of 2020, and it was a big adrenaline rush while moving everyone in. After move in, it was a fun filled weekend with different events ranging form a mentalist show, which I was in and it was the creepiest experience of my life, to a bunch of educational sessions about resources on campus, and even casino night. My group was really awesome and made it so much easier to adjust being back on campus and being in a leadership role. They all had wonderful personalities and I consider them friends now. Having a really great partner by my side through it all made it even more enjoyable!
This whole experience was so rewarding and tiring, but I learned so much from it about myself, others, and my campus. I made so many new friends after just a week of being around a group of amazing and strong leaders. I can’t wait to do this all over again next year with the Nazareth College class of 2021!
