It’s finally here. I’m finally turning to a chapter in my life that I have been looking forward to for many years. During my last year of high school, people would commonly ask me, “Do you have senioritis yet?” My response? “I had senioritis in fifth grade.” My first year as a college student is beginning, and I couldn’t have a better setting for it than Transylvania University.
After a long previous day of packing (yes, I packed everything in one day), the third of September came along, and I was ready to go. My dad and I loaded my not insubstantial amount of belongings into the bed of the truck, honestly sort of doubting whether or not it would fit into my dorm room, Clay 209. I just sort of assumed that I was underestimating how much space the rooms had, and overestimating how much space my stuff took up.
It was a good assumption. Upon arriving to campus at about 10am, a number of Transy’s orientation staff was waiting by Clay Hall, just dying to help us move in. One sophomore in particular told me, “I would love to carry something heavy.” Despite the large volume of things that I brought, the truck was empty, and my room full, in five minutes flat. After about an hour or two of unpacking and arranging, my dorm room already felt like home.
I’ll be totally honest, the rest of the weekend seemed to have the primary goal of trying to familiarize the first-year students with some of the rest of the class of ’14 through tons of corny ice-breakers. In fact, we had an entire event, Orientation Olympics, basically dedicated to that objective. Despite how forced and cheesy it all was, I’m glad to have experienced it. It was a great way to try and relieve some of the shyness and apprehension that comes with moving to someplace new. At the very least, I learned a few names and faces that I might not have otherwise.
Another theme that Orientation Weekend seems to have is that of free food. Who doesn’t love free food!? On Monday, not only did we have a back-to-school picnic in back circle that didn’t require us to use up a meal off of our meal plans, we also had an event later that night, called Slice of Transy. Many Lexington pizza joints donated Transy pizza for us all to try (obviously in hopes of convincing some new college students to purchase their product in the future). We all got in line and got a whole bunch of pizza. Despite it being a marketing ploy, it was delicious. I wish that sort of thing would happen all the time!
Lastly, there are two more Transylvania traditions that all of the first-year students partook in this weekend. First was the Serenade. All of the first-year females stood on the stairs of Old Morrison while all of the first-year males, like myself, stood near the foot of the stairs. Once we were all in place, each side took turns in singing to each other several songs that have been slightly (and, again, cornily) altered to be more suiting to the setting of TU. It was really a goofy way of getting people to loosen up and just have fun and feel comfortable around your peers that you will be sharing a couple of city blocks with for the better part of the next four years.
Secondly, there was the Greet Line. The entire TU class of 2014 lined up around the circle in front of Old Morrison. Then, one end began to wrap around and walk up the line already formed, shaking hands with and introducing themselves to every single person in line. Although (and no offense intended, any class of ’14 students reading this) I only remember a very small fraction of names and faces from that event, I’m very happy to have participated in this long-standing tradition. It’s very cool to be able to say that I have met every single member of my college class. It’s just another reason that the community constantly being built here at Transylvania University is one-of-a-kind, and why I feel that this is going to be a fantastic year.
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