Advice from Older Blue Jays
Why we joined The News-Letter and why you should, too!
If you told freshman-year me that I would be the editor-in-chief of my college newspaper, I would've looked at you in disbelief and questioned if you were talking to the right person.
Making friends 101
Making friends in college can be one of the most anxiety-inducing parts of freshman year. The importance of college friendships is often emphasized by parents, family members, social media and more. It can be somewhat daunting to think of how influential these connections will be on your college experience, but don’t let “finding your people" stress you out too much. Here are three things to keep in mind as you kick off your first semester.
Familiar faces
When I first heard about the First Year Seminar (FYS) program, I was not very excited. I viewed it as a class that unnecessarily took up three credits in my schedule, which I wanted to fill with a course from my major. Such was the case before I had perused any of the options.
Mental Health 101 (as things that happened during my freshman year)
When you spend 17 years in a small town where most of your neighbors’ cars were from before you were born, the opportunity to go into the big, wide world seems like your golden ticket to a new future. In my final year of high school, where I graduated on a lopsided soccer field (since our school wasn’t big enough for a football team), I couldn’t wait to move to a new city — a real, busy, alive city. Even if I was going to be across the country from the rest of my family, something in me knew that I was where I was meant to be.
Finding your footing as a freshman
Change is rarely easy, and the college transition is an extreme case. As a freshman first stepping onto campus, it can take a lot to simply be present. While it’s easy to anticipate the academic challenge that college might bring, it is also easy to overlook how freshman year likely is the furthest you’ve been from all of the people and places you consider home. But, even in that tangle of nerves and excitement, small intentional practices can help ease your transition to college. Here are a few pointers for finding your footing in your first year at Hopkins.
Easy recipes for dorm room cooking
Truth be told, I did not cook once throughout my freshman year. Committed to using up my meal swipes every week, I often chose to traverse across campus to Nolan’s for a piece of burned (or raw) chicken, when I could have cooked up something nice and normal for myself. To help you avoid making the same mistakes I did, here are four of my favorite recipes for dorm room cooking!
Finding a home away from home
After a year away from home, I can’t claim to have the solution for curing homesickness nor can I even say that there’s a way to always make it easy, but I do believe that my experience has taught me a number of important lessons on how to get through and deal with the issues that come with the distance.
Finding my place in the Blue Jay nest
My battle with depression became a fight on its own. But with much help and encouragement, I slowly learned to stop shying away from the idea of being vulnerable and instead, found great meaning in using it as a source of connection. I had to let go of having such high expectations and let myself simply be.