My first week living on campus has precipitated into me moving into a 1-bedroom apartment off-campus. The price one pays for convenience is certainly not worth it when housing on campus is almost double tuition (not including the mandated meal-plan). This is not such a bad change, albeit moving and finding last minute housing can be stressful. My short-lived campus opinion is that although living on campus does motivate one to participate more on-campus activities, clubs, organizations, and socializing with other students at this point in my college career I don’t necessarily want to be so involved. If I’m going to be involved intensely in anything, it’s going to most likely be my studying and books! Most grad students are smarter than to live on campus, so the chances that I’m finding people my age who are in the intellectual struggle with me are slim to none. Even the ones that do live on campus tend to be very isolated and independent. So, living on my own (for the first time) will be an academic and personal challenge as it deals with budgeting, cooking for myself (which I’m not in the habit of doing), and discipline.
Here’s my week in a nutshell:
Monday: I was late to all four classes on my schedule. Partly due to not knowing my way around campus and not giving myself enough time to get lost. I’m too old to be late to classes.
Tuesday: Probably will become one of my favorite days of the week, since my one class does not meet until 4:30pm. This past week though, it was the day I found out that my loan reward was not going to cover my housing. I went into panic mode, wondering how I would be able to get out of the year-lease I signed with the school with no penalty. Financial hardship pretty much did the trick.
Wednesday: Like Monday, except this day I managed to make 2/4 classes on time. I met a freshman, who I’m starting to regard as a little brother (hereinafter referrred to as Freshman Bro). He’s also from Queens and we have mutual acquaintances. We basically kept each other company during chow times, a tradition we’ll most likely keep. Began an intense search for college housing, which at this point was pretty slim. Anxiety began settling in, as I did not want to settle for my last resort which was a neighboring complex that was not very comparable to housing on campus.
Thursday: No classes. Woke up late and took advantage of a Total Body Conditioning Class and the gym. Nice break mid-week.
Friday: Classes were done at midday today. Did some searching online for housing, and the Freshman Bro actually found a contact who knew someone who had an apartment deal fall through. The place is downtown, but still walking distance from campus. Called the landlord, walked over to see it, and approved it (did I really have a choice?) Pricing was good, and although I’m worried about the noise on the weekend, I have peace knowing that I don’t have to live with strangers or immature undergraduates.
Saturday (yesterday): Moved and unpacked most of my belongings, won’t spend my first night there until Tuesday when electricity will be turned on. Now that my living situation is settled, I can worry about settling into these COURSES! Intro to Audiology, Phonetics, Speech Language Development, American Sign Language and the Anatomy and Physiology of the Speech and Hearing Mechanism ain’t no joke!
This Labor Day weekend marks the unofficial end of summer, how are you coping? If you’ve already started school, how was your first week? If you start next week, are you prepared?
Here’s to a less Stressful Second Week,
She Traces
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