Charlcie's Thoughts: On Being An Incoming Freshman

As of now, the only college experiences I’ve ever had are the visits I paid to my best friend’s school during my senior year. Spending weekends with her has made me both excited and nervous for what lies ahead, but what I can say for certain is that I’m glad I at least have some kind of idea of what to expect.

One of the things I’m very nervous about is living with a roommate. I’m worried about a lack of privacy, and spending a large amount of time with someone in a small space. I’ve decided to be randomly assigned a roommate, since I don’t know anyone attending UCI next year, and this is nerve-racking because I don’t know whether we’ll have anything in common. In a perfect world, I think my roommate would be someone who shares some of my same interests. I have a lot of waiting and wondering left to do, though, because room assignments aren’t expected to be sent out until Labor Day weekend!

I’m also worried about not having a car next year. At my school, Freshmen are allowed to bring their cars, but parking is very expensive so I’ve decided to leave my car at home for the first quarter to see how it works out. Since I’ve had my license I have made my car my own personal space and I treasure driving as a time I can spend with my own thoughts in solace. So in the Fall, when I change absolutely everything about my day-to-day life I feel like what I’ll need most is that sense of calm driving provides for me.

What I’ve also realized since graduating is that I’ll miss my high school classmates. Senior year, I hated seeing the same people everyday and I couldn’t wait to be done with high school. Now that it is finally over, I’ve realized that I will especially miss the people from my AP classes because through the trials of difficult homework and tests we formed a sort of nerdy family. Even though throughout high school I saw them as my competition, they also were kind of my cheerleaders, and were always there to build me up. I hope I can form these same type of bonds in college.

At this point, I feel like I’m just waiting the summer out. I can’t wait to start school and have my all my questions about what being in college is like be answered through my own personal experiences. This is the largest transition I will probably ever make in my life and so I guess feeling a little anxious is natural.