My Life As A Freshman

Being a student in college you have to really be mindful of how you eat and when to get your physical activity in. Sometimes you don’t have the time to make food, eat healthy or even make time to go to the gym to work out.

For me, with lacrosse, we are expected to work out every day even if we don’t have practice. We have weight training three times a week in Iler Hall, which is the athletes’ weight-training facility, but there is also the rec center to get in extra work.

All student-athletes here are required to do weight training and practice on and off season.

If you don’t play a sport, the rec center has so many options to make working out fun!

There are also trails around where you can bike and run, like the High Bridge Trail, or even around campus.

All in all, Longwood is a great place to focus on academics while having a good balance with bettering yourself in a healthy way!

Despite the fact that I’ve been away from home now for almost seven weeks, I really haven’t gotten my first bout of homesickness. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I miss my family. But when I’m back home, I miss my new life in Longwood even more!

From the time that I was 9 years old, I spent four weeks every summer at camp. I can remember my mom saying she waited by the phone that first week convinced I would be calling her to come and pick me up. But I never did make that call.

My mother brought me up to be adventurous, and together we have traveled the world.

But that first night that I spent in my own room in Curry Hall at Longwood, I realized that I had found my home, my place, my town. I was in love!!!

This past weekend I came home to help care for my mother after she had surgery. It was so good to see her and be with her, but I couldn’t stop thinking of my new home—Longwood.

I’m sure I will continue to have bouts of loneliness and at times I will question what I’m doing. But, for right now, I’m loving my new life, and I am ready to enjoy every minute of it!

Most people know what a college dorm consists of: a really small space in which you have at least one roommate. At Longwood, you’re actually required to live in a dormitory your first year. As to why this rule exists, I couldn’t tell you, but living in a dorm is definitely a unique experience that everyone should have (maybe that’s one reason behind the rule).

Living in a dormitory is unlike any other living situation you’ve most likely had. Some dorms are coed (meaning guys and girls are on the same hall; my dorm is like this) or some are strictly for boys or girls. As I just mentioned, my dorm is coed, and I was very unsure about how I would adjust.

In movies and in TV shows, living in a college dorm looks super fun all of the time. However, I was really scared to live in a dorm. I actually thought about how I was going to get used to living with a roommate and sharing a bathroom with suitemates more so than the difficultly of my classes!

This fear most likely stems from my being an only child. Throughout my whole life—up until going to college—I always had my own bedroom, bathroom and space to myself. So the thought of always having to share my space and always be considering other people’s class schedules (for the bathroom) was a really scary thought to me.

On the bright side, you’ll be happy to know it’s not as bad as I thought it would be.

When sharing a small space with someone else, it helps if you can get along. Luckily for me, my roommate and I get along very well. My suitemates and my roommate and I get along pretty well also. So if you luck out and get a decent roommate and suitemates (or request to live with someone when choosing housing), then that makes everything else run more smoothly.

As you can see from the photos, the dorms are small, probably even smaller than you think, so getting along with your roommate is key. That being said, one big tip about housing that I remembered from Orientation was that you don’t need to be BFFs with your roommate. As long as you can both respect each other, that’s really all that matters.

It’s something to remember when you’re trying to adjust to living in a shoebox with a complete stranger.

Living in a dorm can be a little challenging sometimes, I’m not going to lie.

Always having to consider others and not really having that much time to yourself can be hard to get used to, but, trust me, you’ll get used to it more easily than you would think. Take it from someone who grew up always having her own space and didn’t even want to go to sleep-away camps because I didn’t want to live with other people!

Just be open-minded, work out a bathroom schedule and find a place of your own to escape to sometimes when you want some privacy and you’ll be fine.

Whether I’m looking for something to do or somewhere I can get help — I don’t have to look far to find it here at Longwood.

As far as getting help, the Writing Center is a good example. The center is such a great resource to help me do the best that I can with my writing—which is not one of my strengths. I recently went to the center for help with an assignment in my Society and Media class, which is for my major in communication sciences and disorders. I had to write a paper about a famous person who has brought public awareness to a disability.

The students who work at the Writing Center are very patient and kind. They helped me with my grammar and punctuation, and with writing a stronger conclusion to the paper. I was really nervous when I first went to the center, but now I am feeling confident. They helped me realize that I’m not a bad writer—I’m just still learning.

I’m also becoming more confident in my study skills. I had my first test recently, and I have discovered that flash cards and study groups are the best way for me to study. Also, studying a little each night helps. The library has really nice group study rooms.

To take a break from my homework and assignments, I have gone to some of the Lancer Productions events!

There were a lot of people at Casino Night. A bunch of friends from my floor went together. We played roulette, black jack and poker—not with real money, of course. We used play money, and any that we had left over at the end of the evening we could use to “buy” raffle tickets for cool prizes. The evening also included an airbrush artist who was giving temporary tattoos, a person making balloon animals and a big selection of great desserts.

On another occasion, I went to a show by a really awesome magician, Daniel Martin.

I also went to a fun craft night inspired by Pinterest. I made fabric coasters, a dray erase board photo frame and some “slime,” and I painted some jars. All the materials were provided, including a bunch of different fabrics to choose from for the coasters. The slime was really fun to make and play with.

 

As the season begins to change and upcoming holidays approach, we wanted to be the cheerful part of the third floor of our hall.

Laya, Lauren and I had a blast decorating our dorm room door. We ran to Walmart grabbing everything that we felt was fall. As we picked up all of our door decorations, we joked and played around getting lots of ideas.

When we came back to the dorm to decorate, we played our music. We sang with no thought of being too loud. Everyone could hear us laughing and our jokes. They got curious and came out into the hall. They stood around watching and eating snacks like we were performing in a full show. They kept saying, “That’s so cool and cute.”

The other people on our floor were so inspired by our little door that we happened to set a trend of door decorating. We even encouraged a door-decorating contest for Halloween.

I guess it’s stuff like that gets you comfortable with dorm life. This little thing we did for fun definitely helped us get used to the people around us and to make new friends. It was great because living away from home takes time to get used to.

 

After being here for a little over a month, Longwood feels like home.

The people I surround myself with make it so much more fun and enjoyable because you’re never really all alone. Being a part of the women’s lacrosse team gives me an opportunity to meet so many new people, and I get along with them so well.

As you know, the Longwood community is small. All of the activities are a lot of fun, but it is all about what you make of it—such as the athletics events. My suitemates are field hockey players, so you will see me watching most of  their home games. Before I came here, I had never gone to a field hockey game because they didn’t have it where I lived. It was a thrill to watch! The soccer games are also a lot of fun to watch, and basketball season is approaching as well. There’s always a sport going on throughout the year.

The best part about it is that you see all the athletes around, and everyone knows each other. You go to everyone else’s games, and they end up coming to yours. You always want a crowd watching your game for spirit, so it is really nice to support each other and cheer on our school!

I can’t wait for spring to come around for our season so everyone can come out and watch!