Misplaced priorities: freshman year leaves plenty room for error

By Katrina Murphy
Editor in Chief

You bring in the last of your boxes, hug and kiss your parents goodbye and shut the door behind them.

You’re finally on your own.  But now what do you do?

You hear some of your floor mates outside talking about a party that night at a house off-campus. You consider going but you know you should look over some things before classes start tomorrow.

Which way do you decide to go?

Surprisingly, these types of moral dilemmas will continue to tease you through all four years of your undergraduate work.  How you face those challenges will determine how your time in college will play out.

Despite what your parents, friends, teachers or peers have told you, you will never be fully prepared for the different types of tests that you will face outside of the classroom. However, there are certain things you can keep in mind as you maneuver your time here at Western Michigan University.

Listen to your gut: Believe it or not, peer pressure exists more so in college than it did in high school.  Stakes are higher and people will push the limits as far as they can go.

Never be afraid to tell one of your friends that you can’t go out because you have to study for a test the next day.  If that person is your friend, then they will understand that you need to put school before fun.  If they don’t get it, then maybe it’s time you move on.

Don’t get bogged down: According to a study conducted by the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California at Los Angeles, 16.3 percent of first-year college students admitted to feeling depressed at some point during their first months of school.

At certain points, you will feel stressed, lonesome, abandoned, isolated and deserted.  But you have to admit to those feelings and move on.  Keep yourself busy, but not just with classes.  Find people in your residence hall that you connect with.

Join an intramural team at the Rec. Center.  Take an art class at the Kalamazoo Institute of the Arts downtown.  Just do whatever you need to do to feel yourself, to make yourself feel comfortable and feel like you’re a part of something bigger.

Don’t give in to the stigma: Does “Wastern Michigan” ring a bell?

When you were deciding what schools to apply to, you probably came across websites that portrayed WMU as a huge party school.

In some aspects, this portrayal is true and the term “party” is used quite frequently among students.  However, during your first year, the term will be thrown around even more than with older students.

You have to consider the bigger picture.  A few months of partying isn’t worth the extra year and thousands of dollars that you’ll have to spend in order to graduate.  While it may be fun to go out six nights a week with friends, it’s not as fun to fail classes.  Just keep in mind that things work best in moderation.

These points aren’t meant to scare you; instead, they’re meant to help you understand and be more comfortable with your first few months on campus.  College is meant to be the time in your life when you decide who you are as a person and to help you find your place in life.

If you’re too busy focusing on the irrelevant things around you, there is a really good chance that you could miss your calling.  Forget what other people want and expect from you.  Make yourself happy.  Try new things.  Learn from the people around you.  Be open to change.

Let this first year be a learning experience for you and if you remember these suggestions, then everything else will fall into place.

Short URL: http://www.westernherald.com/?p=19516

Posted by HeraldAdmin on Aug 29 2010. Filed under Editorial, Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

Cody Kimball
Web Manager: I'm a Communication Student at WMU, a SCUBA Diver, Boater, Ordained Minister, Notary Public, Web Designer, Film Maker, DJ, and of course a Journalist. Born and raised in Port Huron, MI and a graduate of SC4. http://www.codykimball.com