Hello future Lutes!
First of all, welcome to Pacific Lutheran University! Some of you are going to change your mind and decide not to attend PLU in the next few weeks and withdraw before even stepping foot into orientation. But it is so exciting that you have made the decision to attend PLU!
There are many reasons to decide to attend PLU. There are many things/people/reasons that could have influenced you to make this decision: your parents could be telling you to attend a private or religious University, a specific program (like nursing, social work, or education), your family might be alumni, that cute person you saw at Lute OverKnight, to move to another State or Country, the Financial Aid packet, in spite of your parents, to party, to drink, to be independent, etc, etc.
Some of you will be excitingly emailing your roommate(s), already creating a bond. Others will be preparing for living with a stranger, someone you will not become friends with by the end of the semester or year. A person who will make you feel like you cannot express yourself, stay or live in your Hall. Others will not have to worry about what the roommate relationship will hold but instead live at home with their own set of complications to get to and from campus, maintain friendships when living off campus, etc, etc.
Welcome to Pacific Lutheran University where your morals, beliefs, sexuality, vocation, religion, and very existence will be challenged to the breaking point from the academic to the social aspect.
Where the professors, staff, and faculty will be pushing you ask the "Big Enough" questions. Not to be drowning in the apparently "small" questions you have that begin to slowly eat you alive fearing you might mess up or ask something deemed too... "Small?"
Where some (professors, staff, faculty, students) will try and work with you while others would rather you try yourself.... Where answers are not always given straight out, people do not tell you about rules "naturally assumed" like you cannot be in a relationship with an RA from your Hall. Where a cup of coffee might easily be misinterpreted.
Some will come expecting to be a Nursing Student but find instead Environmental Studies before deciding PLU is not the place. Some will come expecting to be a Teacher but instead begin looking into Drama, Literature, Women and Gender Studies, still not knowing what to do. Some will come expecting to major in Social Work and minor in Public Affairs and continue down that path. Others will not get into the programs they came to PLU for and leave.
You might of been straight A's, top 10% in high school or simply got by with the minimum. Now you get to enter a new playing field where you are starting off with a clean plate that might seem refreshing to some but one low grade can prevent a nurse, a teacher, etc, etc, any degree from being obtained.
Not everyone in your Orientation group will stay friends, nor in your residence halls/wings, nor your course, nor etc, nor etc. Some of your closest friends will have to withdraw after Orientation, Fall Semester, January Term, Spring Semester, Summer, all throughout your years at PLU, for reasons varying from: pregnancy, financial aid, vocation, family problems, health, etc, etc.
Sometimes they leave because PLU just is not the place for them.
They have a calling elsewhere.
I do not want to mislead you. I deeply desire PLU to be the best place for you. However, everyone's needs are different. We all have different paths, sometimes meant to intertwine for only a short period of time.
I want you to be aware that you can create a home here and grow so much. You will go through hell and back, and it can be worth it for however long your journey may be at Pacific Lutheran University.
Sincerely,
Someone still attending Pacific Lutheran University
