Quindecim

Issue date: 10/13/04 Section: Opinion

Katie Muise is a freshman at Goucher College.

I always knew coming to college would not be easy. It would be a new place, new people, an entire new life very far away from home and everything I've known for my entire life. The challenges I would have to face would not be easy. However, I wanted them. I wanted to see if I could handle it all.

Once I got here and started dealing with living with a roommate, making friends, and handling a pretty heavy course load, I started to wonder if I was in over my head.

I am an only child and never had to share a living space with anyone before. It was difficult to get used to having someone else always around, and I am still adjusting to it. I was always so used to having my own room. It was always extremely important to me. Giving up that space has been nothing but difficult.

Classes here are very different from what I was used to in high school. Students here are expected to do a lot more work on their own time. The professors don't remind us of the work we have to do; it is expected that we will keep up with our syllabi.

A couple of times already I have fallen victim to the "I have plenty of time to do this so I will put it off" mentality. I quickly found that was the wrong way to go, since it usually means staying up all hours of the night or missing out on hanging out with friends.

Once I got on top of things, life got easier. I'm glad I learned that lesson within the first couple of weeks of school. Now I can handle the course load and still have time to do what I want.

The biggest challenge I have faced since arriving at Goucher has been making friends. At orientation, everyone was friendly. Groups of friends formed fast. Learning names became the hardest part of it all. I wanted to be friends with everyone I met.

I made a small group of friends and became close with them. After a time, though, I wanted to expand. But how to go about doing that? I started making an effort to get to know the kids in the clubs I had joined. From there I went on to hang out with them outside of the club activities and made new friends.

I still struggle with meeting new people outside of classes and clubs, but it is getting easier. I am hoping everything will continue to get easier as time passes and I get used to college life. With this process of adjustment, I have learned a lot about myself and have grown up quickly. In all, I am glad for this experience, however hard it has been and will be.

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