Blog
Find advice and follow the college experiences of our current first-gen student bloggers.
Orientation Week at Wellesley
My first week at Wellesley has been everything I expected (as cliché as it sounds) and quite a few things that I did not anticipate. It has been simultaneously familiar and somehow fresh and completely eye-opening. I’ve registered for the classes that I’d been eying...
College 2.0
After quite an eventful and relaxing summer, my sophomore year has finally started! Classes have come back into session and so many familiar and some not so familiar faces have crossed my path. I've gathered all my textbooks and organized my backpack with a variety of...
work life balance.
This past summer I had two internships. One required 40 hours a week and the other required about 10-20. All I did was work over the summer. I learned a lot about which career route I wanted to pursue and which routes I do not want to pursue. However, I feel like I...
Moving In
When I moved into my dorm at IWU it was chaos! Students, parents, and boxes were everywhere! My mom helped me move it. She made my bed, moped the floor, and wiped down everything-- and I mean EVERYTHING! I could remember thinking "How am I supposed to live in this...
Moving In: Dorms and Homesickness
Freshman year, my parents flew with me over to Amherst. They rented a car and helped me move in and buy the necessities. As soon as they saw my room, the look of my mom’s face said it all; I was going to live in a matchbox. The room wasn’t only oddly L-shaped, it was...
Moving In…?
As a new Resident Assistant, I have now been on both ends of the spectrum: the nervous, anxious and shy freshman moving into a scary new dorm; and the cheerful and peppy RA helping first year students move into their dorms. As a freshman I had many anxieties...
Crossing the Bridge: From Friendliness to Friendship
I don’t understand. How can everyone make friends by asking each other the most generic questions: “What’s your name, where are you from, and what do you want to major in?” All I hear are these same three questions and then silence. It’s so difficult to keep any other...
Charleston State of Mind
As I left my hometown of Irmo, South Carolina, I knew that I was prepared for college. I had spent my entire month of July preparing for college in a transition program, SPECTRA, hosted by the College of Charleston, and had only been home for a week before I had to go...
What I wish I had known…
So I'm just going to come right out and say it: The first year is hard. Very hard. I had days where I just wanted my mom's hugs or to be alone with my own thoughts. But I also had those days where I was just baffled by all the amazing people around me and found myself...
The Big Leagues
This morning I was eating breakfast at my college dining hall and it hit me that I am a college student. When I say it hit me, I mean it HIT me with the mental weight of a freight train. This is the big leagues now. Pretty serious business. When I was little I always...