Everybody remembers their first move-in day.
Meeting your roommate. Your mom being overly controlling about the arrangement of your room, but you know it’s because she’s upset to see you leaving the house. That painful process of trucking up a big futon from the first floor to the fourth floor. Meeting everyone on your floor and answering the same series of questions: “What’s your name? Where are you from? What are you planning on majoring in?”
That first meeting with your mentor group and the first ice breaker exercises. Should I try to be funny? Who should I sit next to? What should I say as my fun fact when it’s my turn to introduce myself? We all asked ourselves the same questions.
It all feels so recent.
That feeling in your stomach that’s a combination of excitement, fear and confusion. Pulling out your campus map because you have no idea where anything is. Not knowing what to eat at the Hub, or the Inn, or wherever the first-years are eating these days.
It all feels so different now.
Now as sophomores return for their second year, juniors make their return as upperclassmen and seniors begin their last ride, move-in day is much different.
Your roommates your first-year are now your best friends. Your parents do not even need to come help you move in if they do not want to because it is not your first rodeo. The pressure to meet new people and answer all the essential questions is no longer a priority. The brutal transportation of your futon may be the only similarity.
You lose the fear and confusion in your stomach and are simply filled with excitement. You do not need a campus map anymore. You have your exact order of food at your respective dining location. Maybe you even make a trip to Marvin’s on your first day, which you didn’t even know existed on move-in day your first year.
It is easy for first-years to mistake that feeling in their stomach as a mistake. I would be hard pressed to find a single college student who went through their first year without any doubts on their college decision.
But stick it out. That feeling in your stomach is not a mistake. It is the start of something great. One day your move-in day will be one of the best days of the year. One day that couch will not feel as heavy to carry because you will have your three best friends holding each corner. One day you will actually look forward to move-in day.
So first-years: cherish your first move-in day. You will never have another one like it. Despite all the nervous tensions running through your body as you adjust to your new home, one day when it’s all over, you will be wishing you could experience that feeling again.