For any freshman, the first week of college can be an emotional roller coaster. Having to pack all your childhood mementos into a box to be shipped out for the next year of your life can be emotionally intense. I had a similar experience when all of my dorm stuff started accumulating in my basement throughout the summer but it felt extremely real once I packed all my clothes and pictures off my walls. Overtime, I realized my childhood bedroom wasn't going to be "my room" for the next year. I realized I wasn't going to cuddle with my dog every night. I realized I wasn't going to see my parents every night for dinner or listen to my brother come home from work every night. All of these realizations didn't hit me until I was saying goodbye to my parents and brother after they helped me unpack, and I was now officially on my own.

Going to Rhode Island College and living on campus, most freshmen are put into a standard double room unless they request to be put into a suite style room. I was fortunate enough to be put in a triple, which there are nine of on the entire campus, and in a room with a broken air conditioner. Once I realized this I thought to myself, "great, what did I just get myself into?" Fortunately, enough fans can be brought into the room to cool it off -- unfortunately it is just going to take forever to fix the air conditioner. The room situation, being a triple, actually worked out really nicely considering we have no bunk beds! The room is weirdly shaped and this allows for everyone to actually have their own space at any given time.

I decided to go in blind when picking my roommates because I didn't want to room with a friend and then end up hating them halfway through the school year. By going in completely blind, I was afraid I was going to be roomed with people who I have nothing in common with and we won't get along. I couldn't have been more wrong. My roommates/suite-mates and I are all completely different, but that's what makes us the best of friends already. We are all so completely different that we compliment each other perfectly. Some of us are the same major, but that doesn't mean we have anything else in common. Every time a resident assistant comes to do the nightly room checks, we all come out and say hi and end up talking to them for longer than we probably should. All in all, the roommate situation worked out in my favor.

Classes are going well, too. For me, I am also in the honors program at RIC so I expect a little bit more of myself than a typical student might. Most of my professors have been engaging and welcoming to a young, wide-eyed and scared freshman like me and I couldn't be more thankful. My first week at college has been a wild ride and I didn't really expect it to go this way at all, however I can say that I wouldn't have wanted it to go any other way. I know I have made memories that will last a lifetime!