How has it already been 8 months since I started college? It feels like just yesterday I was moving into my dorm room. (Actually at the time of this writing, I was moving out yesterday.) So many things have happened since then and luckily most of them have been good things. So here are some of the highlights from my freshman year of college.
1. I met a lot of new people.
Within the first hour of moving in I had met about five new people. And by the end of the day, that number had grown to be almost forty. In the seven years of middle school and high school, the most new people I would meet was probably three students who had just moved to the school. So it was overwhelming to meet so many new people on the first day. Over the year I just kept meeting more and more. I added at least 100 people on Facebook, which is how I communicated with a lot of them because I am not a super social person. Well...
2. I became more social?
Sort of. In high school, I pretty much only spent time with people at school. We would occasionally hang out outside of school, but it was normally just a small group of people and we only went to the movies and sometimes dinner. In college, I had to live with a roommate and with (approximately) twenty other people on my floor. I was surrounded by people all the time, most of them friendly. I also started hanging out with a group of people who sometimes forced me to spend time with them if I was “watching too much Netflix.” (One can never watch “too much Netflix” by the way.) I still had some alone time, but it was nice to have people that wanted to hang out a lot.
3. There was a lot of theater.
After doing eight shows in high school and a few others outside of high school, I knew I wanted to continue acting in college. So I auditioned for a couple things in the fall and got a role in a one act show. The audition process was different, but so cool. The show was a lot of fun and I made a lot of friends in doing it. Then over Christmas Break I got the opportunity to go see “Newsies” in Detroit and somehow the person who bought our tickets got us front row which was incredible. It was also the first big show I’d ever seen!
In the spring, there was a Night of Scenes that I auditioned for. I got the role of a guy whose “real passion is golf.” I know almost nothing about golf, but the role itself was so much fun to play and I loved the people that I got to work with. I am very excited to see what’s in store for next year.
4. I started working out!
Okay we all know that’s a lie. I mean, I did have Personal Fitness which had exercise labs every Thursday, so I wasn’t completely inactive. But I also didn’t go to the fitness center (like, ever) which is something I had planned to do.
However, I did start doing Zumba. It kind of happened by accident. One of my friends went all fall semester and so when it started again in the spring semester, she told me I should go and that she had convinced one of our other guy friends to go. I was very hesitant because dancing is not one of my skills. But I needed to do physical activity as part of my Personal Fitness grade, so I went. It turned out that one of my friends from theater was the instructor and it ended up being way more fun than I thought it would be. I also did a 5K and ran/jogged the whole thing which kind of surprised me, but I felt really good about it. That’s about the extent of my physical activity, though.
5. I decided on a major… kind of…
In the fall semester I had no idea what I wanted to do. I was “Undecided.” After talking to multiple professors and others, I came to the conclusion that I wanted to become a math teacher for high school. I took the first Education class and enjoyed it. But… I’ve recently considered switching my major. It’s honestly so stressful thinking about it because I don’t know what I want to do for the rest of my life. So I talked with my professor and she told me to set some goals for the summer to help me make a decision. So that’s where I am now. It’s a start.
6. I finished all of “Parks and Recreation” within five months.
This is a bonus fact because next week's article may or may not be some sort of review of the show. Or just my thoughts on the show. Is that considered a review? I guess we’ll see how it turns out or if I get inspiration for a different article.
So that’s a pretty decent summary of my freshman year at Spring Arbor University. I’m looking forward to next year when I hopefully meet a lot of new people as well as seeing all the friends that I have missed over the summer. I can’t wait to be in more theater productions and probably/possibly actually start working out at the fitness center. I’ll also hopefully have decided on what I want to do with my life and probably binge watch at least two more shows. But for now, I’m going to enjoy my summer break with family and friends.
