While the first week of classes is the easiest, with simple syllabi and ‘what-do-you-expect-from-this-course’ assignments, it is arguably one of the most stressful times for returning students. Considering that beginnings tend to foster uncertainties, this experience is only natural — but, once we find our groove, things become more and more comfortable.
Need an example? Take my first couple of weeks on Grounds. My course schedule was an unfinished mess. An unpaid bill had been stuck in the mailroom over the break. I couldn’t decide whether to keep or cancel my meal plan for the semester. I signed up for an absurd number of extracurricular activities in a lame attempt to meet more people and the models I ordered for my anatomy course were both on backorder. All in all, the things that needed to be done before Jan. 18 were not done.
Torturously enough, I soon realized there isn’t much to do that first week back. I sent emails to professors and called different services with inquiries, but, for the most part, I had to wait for responses. So, all I did that first week was wait, stress and read the same syllabi over and over again.
On top of that, I had a vague sense of homesickness that I carried on my shoulders. While I was eager to be back on Grounds, it meant saying goodbye to a family that I was embarrassingly close to and our newly-adopted, rambunctious golden retriever. In my experience, which isn’t a lot, I’ve found that ‘missing people’ is a lot like a Band-Aid — just something that needs to be ripped away, something that needs to happen. The first few days on Grounds were a little lonely, but I was able to bounce back thanks to a conveniently-timed basketball game — our Wahoos against the Yellow Jackets. There, my roommates pointed out the different players and we cheered along with our fellow Wahoos. After that game, it felt as if things had taken a turn for the better.
Throughout the following week, those stresses began to slowly sort themselves — one at a time. I received an email from a professor, granting me permission to fill out a course action form, and after collecting two signatures, I established my schedule for the semester and a small weight was lifted from my shoulders. After picking up food on Grounds, I remembered how nice it was not to need to cook for every meal and decided to keep my meal plan. Soon, I decided to narrow my extracurricular activities down to two main ones, being a Life columnist for The Cavalier Daily and volunteering. Finally, in class, my anatomy professor explained that the company exhausted its book stock and assured us that it was alright not to have the materials.
As these problems were solved, my stresses about the upcoming semester shifted to more typical ones — how long would it take to read fifty textbook pages or how difficult would the take-home quiz be? In time, all those problems were solved — they just needed time, patience and a little bit of assertion on my part. All I needed was to find a groove, slip back into a comfortable routine and pick up where I left off.
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