Despite our cutthroat reputation, our school offers a seemingly endless number of resource to ensure the success of every student — academically and personally. While a comprehensive guide would take ages to comb through, below are a few of my favorite “hidden” or lesser-known resources.
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.
Like many Hopkins students, I am one of those people whose interests are diverse and unrelated. And, like many Hopkins students, I tend to participate in way too many activities to keep all these passions engaged (I also have a difficult time saying no to people, which probably doesn’t help). When the fall semester began, I was full of energy, determination and naïveté. These three things mostly carried me through the first semester without any major hiccups. But when the second semester started, I found that my plan failed to take into account several factors, the biggest of which was burnout.
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.
If there’s one message I really wish someone would’ve told me before I started college, it’s that whatever path I picked was the right path. If there’s one thing for freshmen to take away from this letter, it’s that your judgment is sound, and you’re doing the right things even if other people choose to approach this year differently.
Dear Freshman Molly, You made it! Yes, you read that right; you’re at the end of your four years at Hopkins, and you have come out in one piece! I remember how you are feeling now: Having spent your entire life in a small town, you are restless and excited to go far. When imagining what you think the college version of yourself will be like, she is everything you are not at 18 — effortlessly successful, self-assured and outgoing (complete with a really cool haircut).
Before going into the nitty gritty of my time at Hopkins, I just want to say that I’m grateful for both the hard and good times I’ve had here. These experiences are what have shaped me into the man I am today. I came to Hopkins as a teenager right in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, and I leave a full grown adult ready to swim through the challenges of life.
During these last four years, I’ve worked as a tour guide for the admissions office. When we reach the last tour stop at Decker Quad, I always wrap up by answering the question, “Why Hopkins?” For me, the answer is simple: the people.
If I had a nickel for every incorrect prediction I made about my college experience, I would have…a lot of nickels. On March 14, 2020, I let out a breath I didn’t realize I had been holding. Staring back at me and my parents was the long-anticipated email from Johns Hopkins University congratulating me on my admission to the class of 2024. I vividly remember spending the rest of that evening daydreaming about the four years ahead of me.
Much like the last day of a vacation, my excessive awareness of the fact that my time at Hopkins is coming to a close has made it difficult to fully enjoy myself. Instead, whenever I check my calendar, I find myself counting the number of weeks left until graduation u2014 and, six days later, my flight home.
My time at THE Johns Hopkins University can only be described as hectic, bustling and ever-moving. From signing myself up for as many clubs as possible to taking 18-credit semesters, I would like to think that I have contributed (quite well) to campus — and Baltimore — during my undergrad. Though I have been involved in many things, I would like to take the time to highlight one class, one organization and one experience that meant so much to me.
“Copy of Copy of PLAN BUT I DROP PREMED” That is the title of the final iteration of my four-year plan. As I sit down to reflect on the last four years of my life at Hopkins, those are the words that echo in my mind. It’s a simple yet poignant summary of the twists and turns, ups and downs, As and “unsatisfactory”s, that have characterized my university experience.
I’ve started saying my goodbyes to Homewood Campus. As I conclude my last year of college and my third year in Baltimore, I think back to the places where I passed my time. The dorms, the library, the stuffy classrooms. It is easier to grieve brick and mortar than the people I may never see again.
Everyone comes to college an outsider. New to Baltimore, I remember jangling with the nervous desire to belong. I looked for a way in through writing for The News-Letter, and one of my first stories was about a new restaurant opening in Charles Village called Busboys and Poets. Busboys is gone now, which goes to show how a person and a place can change in less than four years.
I joined the Poverty and Inequality Research Lab intending not only to gain research skills but also to become a better listener and advocate. During winter break, we traveled to a small town in Arkansas to map out the decision-making processes of families there. This experience helped us learn more about the voices of marginalized communities.
I will never forget the day I was accepted into Hopkins. Not because it was rosy and life-changing. Antithetically, it seemed that everyone thought the world would end that day. It was Friday, March 13, 2020, which became our last day of “normal” school before everything shut down due to the pandemic. Now, my graduation gown stares at me from my closet, a self-imposed reminder that my time at Hopkins is almost over. How did we get here already?
Dear Isabella, You’ve probably just gotten the news that your first semester at Hopkins, your dream university, will be entirely online — right before your wisdom teeth removal surgery. It sucks, I know. And these restrictions will stay in place for a while. But the pandemic doesn’t last forever. You will get to dance the night away, see your friends’ faces and experience all the unique offerings Baltimore has — eventually.
Really, this letter to my freshman self might also be a letter to my current self. Although I’ve definitely changed in these past four years, I’ve stayed the same in many ways. I’m still anxious, neurotic and a people pleaser. I still worry. I still have many fears. I’m still learning to accept who I am as a person, to love myself and to grow as a friend to others.
During and following the pandemic, reading has been on the rise. This has been evident among online communities, like and including TikTok’s “BookTok.” There, readers share book reviews, talk about their reading habits and recommend books to other TikTok users.
Donald Trump’s legal woes have become something of a spectacle, with a new case or arraignment seemingly arriving every week. However, it seems that these felonies are having practically no impact on his presidential ambitions.
