Starting College: Shared Experiences

Engl 165-09 Fall '24

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I feel like I am able to relate to Sarah in many ways. Over the summer, I spent my time working and hanging out with my friends just like Sarah did. Unlike Sarah, who built close bonds with people from home before leaving, I distanced myself from most of my hometown friends and spent more time with my family and new people who were going to Longwood. I went to a concert that was similar to Summer Fest in the story. While she was shopping for school, she seemed overwhelmed and stressed. I felt the exact same way while I was getting my things together to move in. 

Sarah’s experience in this novel starts to vary from mine more once she moves into college. One difference in our experiences is that my friends and boyfriend helped me move in instead of my parents, so I did not say goodbye to them here at Longwood. Sarah was not friends with her roommate prior to coming to college. I already knew two of my suitemates and had a chance to hangout with them over the summer. Since I had people I was familiar with from the start, I think Sarah’s experience differed from mine. She had to start over and make new friends, so her first couple of days on campus seemed confusing and full of questions. I had a group to fall back on during the process of adjusting to college life, so I think I felt more comfortable than she seems to be in the story. 

Although our experiences weren’t exactly the same, the small comments made throughout the novel about classes, emails, and scheduling during her first week of school were funny and relatable to me. It shows how a lot of us are going through the same stressful feelings during this period of change and growth. 



 
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How do I connect with the main character of “Freshman Year”?

Engl 165-09 Fall '24

In the book Freshman Year thus far, the main character, Sarah, has just started her college journey for the first time. Considering I am not a freshman I don’t completely connect with her, however there are ways I do share her experiences. In the book it is shown that she had a great summer, spending time with her friends and family. However as the school year got closer and closer she wasn’t quite prepared because she thought procrastinating could preserve summer. I felt the same way this summer, I thought if I could just ignore my important scheduling and emails then I could hold onto summer for a little bit longer. Well, turns out I couldn’t and the only thing it didn’t for me was make getting a good class schedule all that more difficult. Something else I feel that I can connect with is the meeting of friends. All summer I hung out with the same friends and family but I forgot that when I got to school I was going to have to start fresh. Not just from being home all summer but also being at a different school. She’s learning how to balance friendships at a new place while she still has friendships and relationships at home that she is trying to preserve as well. That is not an easy thing to do.

Another connection I have with the main character is the learning of time management and organization when it comes to classes and homework. Ive done it before but unfortunately it didn’t really get easier but Im sure I will get the hang of it. In all of these new things there is always a feeling that keeps coming back around and that’s homesickness. Even though I’m not completely new to college I still understand the feeling of being homesick and that’s ok that’s why its great to have friends around because whether you think so or not most everyone is going through just about the same things right now. So find your people and use each other as support systems through these new and different times.

 

 
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Blog post #3

Engl 165-09 Fall '24

In the opening pages of “Freshman Year” by Sarah Mai, Sarah is introduced, who just graduated from high school. Sarah hangs out with her friends right after graduating, and that’s exactly what I did too. I spent the first week after graduating to spend time with all my friends because I knew that would be the last time I would see them for a while when we all started college. After that first week, I started working full time to save up money for college. Sarah also worked during the summer after she graduated. Sarah had a summer job gardening, I worked at my local grocery store. Which is what I also did my junior and senior year of high school. It was hard going from school seven days a week, seeing my friends every day to working seven hour shifts every day. It was a major change for me, and I don’t do too well with big changes. I had a lot of anxiety, and I was stressed about picking my classes and what I needed to buy but so was Sarah. She was worried about her friends and what she needed to do before college started. I eventually got the hang of going to work every day and seeing my friends less and less. It hurt a lot, but I knew that it was just a part of growing up. I also realized that change is good, it’s needed to grow and adapt. It pushes us out of our comfort zones and allows us to learn new things. Change in life can open up new opportunities and perspectives for the future. The first 68 pages just show how she gets through summer before college and how sometimes it can be very stressful and she’s very correct. It’s hard to try and be prepared but in reality, nobody can be but so ready for anything. There are always possible what ifs, but they are good, they keep you on your toes for any unexpected thing to happen.

 
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Blog post group 1

Engl 165-09 Fall '24

In Freshman year Sarah started her summer experience with working at a garden place tending to plants.  I started my summer experience working for my father at our real estate/contracting business. It might sound like hard work but I have done it for many summers before that. The experiences that I had while working out there are always something because I’m working with men in their forties and thirties. You would never know what was going to happen on the job site that day or anything. One thing it did teach me was responsibility and keeping up with my own things. I went on a family vacation too like Sarah but we went on our family beach trip. This year though we went to Key West for vacation. We usually just go to OBX but since I just graduated we decided to go down there. Like Sarah though I did go fishing down there. Another experience that Sarah had was seeing her friend off when she went to college. I had that same experience seeing my friends off. Of my friends 3 of us went to college and they were my closest friends. One went to Radford college and my other friend went to Ole miss college. Like Sarah it was hard because I grew up with these guys my entire life and playing sports with them too. When Sarah moved into college her experience was a little chaotic. My experience was the opposite. My parents did not help me move in. I had my sister help me move in. I left my home with everything in my truck and just moved in. Me and Sarah did have something in common. I did not know my roommate like she did not know hers. Like her the first night I was scared too. I did not know what to expect or anything.           


 
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The College Experience So Far (Blog Post #3)

Engl 165-09 Fall '24, Freshman

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While reading the first part of the graphic novel Freshman Year, I learned about the activities which occupied Sarah’s summer before starting college, her move-in experience, and her first week of college. In doing so, I was able to connect some of her experiences to mine, while also seeing how they differed. Some of these activities included having a summer job, hanging out with friends and family, and shopping for dorm essentials. Although we did similar things over the summer, I think the specifics of them are where our experiences vary greatly. For instance, Sarah’s summer job included mowing lawns, gardening, and walking dogs, etc. On the other hand, I worked at a gym as a swim instructor, teaching young children how to swim. In the later part of the reading, I was also able to connect Sarah’s experiences of moving in and her first week to my own. In regard to moving in, I had my family with me just like Sarah. However, she only had her parents helping her, while I had all three of my siblings in addition to my parents. Similar to Sarah, my first week here at Longwood was spent attending required events to get us settled into campus. These events included navigating the campus, attending presentations full of important information, and taking part in small activities, such as icebreaker games to get to know each other. I was genuinely surprised to find all of these similarities with Sarah from my summer and very first college experiences. Despite all of these similarities there are still of course big differences. Some of these would be the university which we are attending, as well as what we are studying; Sarah is undecided, but leaning towards studying English, and I am studying Nursing. Overall, regardless of any differences in my experience compared to Sarah’s, I was able to connect with the story and her as a freshman in college.
Reflecting on my summer and my time at Longwood so far, I am left feeling slightly regretful. I am filled with many different emotions and feelings, but for some reason that is the first one that comes to mind. It is not regret for anything I have done, but for things that I have not done. For example, I regret not spending more time with my friends and family before I left. After this summer I began to realize just how fast time can go by and this understanding only increased since I have been here at Longwood. I am overjoyed at the positive experiences I have had and the incredible friends I have made thus far, but there is so much going on all the time, making it difficult to slow down and enjoy these things. Despite this feeling of regret, I am hopeful that I will soon find a better balance and be able to truly enjoy the wonderful experiences college has to offer.
 
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Dear Future Self

Engl 165-09 Fall '24

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Dear Future Syriana, I hope that you have been treating yourself kindly. I have the utmost trust in the fact that you will have friends that you love and care about and they feel the same to you. I want you to have a solid idea on what you want to do with a psychology career, I want you to be someone that I can be proud of. College may be hard but adult life always will be, so suck it up and do it. I want you to have kicked the nasty habit of procrastination that you have and that you learn the most effective techniques so that you can help those around you. You deserve the world and you should work hard to make sure that it is deserving of you. Help all the people that you can whether it  be from working minimum wage during summer, or if you do a research that truly rattles the ordinary mind, do what makes the present you the most happy. I want to get more active and have a better balance of work and play, it’s something that really needs to be fixed even if it seems really hard just like now, you can do it. You WILL have friends, a happy life, a good support group, wonderful study habits and all the amazing things that I know we deserve. Excelle in what you love, learn how to embroidery more effectively, walk the Appalachian, get better and healthier habits and most importantly be happy with what you make for yourself. I will always believe in you future self so do the things that will lead us to the most happiness and think of all the people that you will meet, love, hate, and experience along the way. I’m always cheering you on!!! 

 

With so much love,

your past self.

 
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Who you will be in four years

Engl 165-09 Fall '24

Dear Future Self, 

You are writing this on September 11, 2024 as you are attending your first year at Longwood to get your Elementary Education degree. You always wanted to be a teacher and you knew from a really young age. Did you realize it would be this hard to get to that point to actually teach in the next few months? Did you achieve the license you need and have the GPA you want? Even better, did all your experience with student teaching be something you will never forget? You picked Longwood for the best education program close to home that fits your needs and hopefully it was all that you seemed. You know how much you love to learn about your degree, but did you get more involved then just learning? You told your freshman self that you wanted to meet some of your life long friends that will always stick by your side. Your roommate is your childhood best friend and your suitemates were new girls you met freshman year, and we have already made some of the best memories. Are you living with all of them in an apartment? Or new friends? Or some of both? I remember you telling yourself that you were looking for clubs that dealt with animals. I know you researched Paws for Purpose and STEP, but did you actually go through with being in them? If you attended them like you plan to, did you make any connections with people or pets? Possibly even bring one home like you did as a senior in high school? In the back of your mind you were possibly wanting to rush for a sorority, but the more you thought you were stressed about not having time for studies. Did you join one or just stick with clubs? As the years went on and the studies got harder I know that your family and friends were always by your side. I hope you made your time at Longwood worth every minute and stood to your standards of your studies and activities you got involved in. Push yourself to be the best version of you in your teaching career. 

Love, 

The person you will become 

 
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Dear Future Me,

Engl 165-09 Fall '24

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Dear Future Me,

It is I, Logan, though I am sure you knew that. I am sure you have forgotten all about this letter by now, but here it is all the same. As it stands today I am a student at longwood university, my major is business and economics with a concentration in Accounting. There are things i wonder about you, how you will fare in this class, English 165, is probably the most prevalent on my mind. I am sure you know I am no good at English but I am sure that we will prevail. I wonder how you are now, did you graduate in the school of business and economics or did you switch majors? Did you finally make a decision on taking a minor? if so is it the economics minor I am thinking about or something different? Did you get a good internship? How was the talk with the recruiter that Joe wanted you to talk too? I hear the CPA exam can be difficult, I hope that it was not to hard to do. But most of all I hope your enjoying your career I know that is my greatest fear is that i will hate it. On anther note, I wonder if you ended up joining anymore clubs, like chess(if there is one), I know that is something I am thinking about doing but am unsure if I want to do that, would be good for networking but at the same time I do not want to join something just to know people I wanna have fun, but i digress. I am sure you are out living your best life, a life I cannot wait to see. I am excited to get to your point in life, excited to see what career we end up going into and how we get there.

Through all the good times ahead,

Logan Wooton

 
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Who will you be in four years: 1st Blog post.

Engl 165-09 Fall '24

Dear future self,

You are now a freshman at the university of Longwood. You are currently majoring in business with a concentration in management, you are also studying criminal justice. I have hopes to be a Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Program Manager/Administrative Support Supervisor. Although I worry about the transition in schoolwork from high school to college, I am very exciting to begin this new chapter in my life. I am so lucky to have already found some of my favorite people that I will have for the rest of college and friendships that will last a lifetime. It has been very hard leaving my best friend from home and my family, but I am adjusting very well and hope to continue to. I look forward to meeting many more people. Am I still enjoying college and adjusting well to the new environment?

The one thing I am most worried about while adjusting to college is the amount of work I will have. Balancing academic, social and personal life I feel will be the hardest part. I have always been told 2 different perspectives on college. One of which being it is so hard; all I have time for is schoolwork and it is so much different than high school. The other being it is not as bad as it seems, I have so much time to do the things I want, and I have more of a social life than an academic one. By the end of the 4 years which perspective did I have on college? I am confident that I will find a healthy balance and will make the most out of any situation.  I am curious to know if I am still just as passionate about my career or if I have changed my mind.

I hope to have improved on prioritizing myself and focusing on the things that are truly important. I hope I find time to do the things I truly enjoy and that will allow me to reach my life’s goals.

 Lastly, I hope to be the happiest and most successful I can be by the end of the next 4 years at longwood.

 
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Blog Post #1: Who will you be in four years?

Engl 165-09 Fall '24

09/12/24

Dear future self,

How are you doing? Currently you’re a freshman at Longwood University studying Bio/Pre-med. Is this still true? I hope so because I am so excited to see what else is waiting for us. But I know you have good judgement, although I may be a smidge biased, so I know you’ll do good in whatever else you choose. What has been your favorite part of college over these past few years? Was it everything you imagined? You had such big dreams for your college experience, hopefully you stuck with them.

Have you found any clubs or groups to get involved with? You were so excited to experience college life, so hopefully you found some way to live that out. Are you still friends with the people you came here from high school with? Did you find some new friends? You love talking to people and showing your care for others, so I really hope so. Which brings me to asking, are you still the same people loving person you grew up to be? I really hope so, that’s your favorite part of yourself.

Looking back on your past four years, what was your favorite class. Probably not math, but maybe that changed about us. Maybe we like math now. Do you still want to be a Radiologist? We’ve changed our mind so many times that I wouldn’t doubt it if you said you changed it again. If so, have you done any internships or started working at a hospital to gain some experience? How are you liking it? Hopefully you can look at yourself in the mirror and see the person you couldn’t wait to see when you were me, just getting started.

I know you’re doing great, because we never knew what we were gonna do if we didn’t. Hopefully by now you’re in medical school, learning everything you dreamed to know as a kid. Im proud of you, you did it. Keep on going until you can say you’re truly happy with the outcome. No matter how many times you have to restart. You’ve got this. I hope I get to answer these questions with all the answers I wish I could know now.

From your current self,

Kaylie.

 
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