College is a Thing?!?

By Tamika Whitenack

I am about halfway through orientation! Today is Day 4, and I am feeling pretty okay. Orientation has been somewhat busy, full of move-in and meeting people, learning my way around campus, lots of information sessions, and the daunting task of figuring out a class schedule that works! At the end of each day, I’m tired and ready to sleep in my new bed, but for some reason my body still seems to like waking up early...so it goes. This early awakening may partially be a result of the sunlight through our windows, but it gets rather warm on the fourth floor of Raymond so my roommate and I like to keep our windows open. Weather at Vassar the first two days was sweaty and hot, but it has since shifted to milder temperatures and I’m quite enjoying it. We also had a loud and bright thunderstorm one night, and the bursts of lightning were quite exciting to my roommate and I.

lightning!!

My roommate does have a name, her name is Talia. She is from Bellingham, Washington. So far we seem to get along quite well and I’m optimistic for our success as roommates/friends. Meeting people has been fun but also overwhelming, as there are so many new faces! Mainly we spend time with our fellow groups, the eight person group of first-years on our hallway, and occasionally large group activities with our house. There are also a lot of one-time encounters with people, but it’s a little bit difficult to really get to know anyone. Most other first-year students I’ve spoken with agree that it will a lot easier to get to know people once we have the consistency of classes and student organizations/activities, and I personally a really looking forward to that.

That said, I still feel like I’m getting a sense for the social climate at Vassar and enjoy most of the interactions I have with other people. I increasingly believe that Vassar was the right choice for me. We’ve done a few orientation activities that have focused on identity, belonging, and diversity, and I think particularly on recognizing and affirming the presence of students who, to paraphrase our Dean of Students “Matthew Vassar did not originally intend for”. Today’s session shared a lot of statistics about the make-up and diversity of the student body at Vassar, and I thought that was really interesting. The session also included personal stories from students (mainly from marginalized groups) who shared their experiences here and how they navigated through the times the felt they did not belong to accept their identities and find support. I am encouraged by the fact that we are having these conversations and by the audience (my classmates) response to the session. That said, it is also still very earlier in our awareness of each other’s existences, so there is some awkwardness and structure to the way these interactions are carried out. So it goes.

People aside, each day spent at Vassar increases the magic of the campus. All the buildings are incredibly picturesque, and there are so many trees! (Each graduating class gets a tree dedicated to them, fun fact). The pathways meander through lawns and trees and nice brick and stone buildings and the overall effect is very peaceful. I’ve also been exploring the farm/ecological preserve some more on my morning runs, and am very grateful for the decent number of trails! Of course, it isn’t Tilden, but there are goats, wildflowers, and lots of nice wooded trails. The future of my running looks good, although I admit that this week hasn’t been ideal for me since the schedule is so busy.

Similarly, my flute playing has not been consistent as I would like. I tried practicing in the basement one night, but vowed never to do that again because it was hot and terrible, also sort of creepy (the Raymond basement is very legitimate proof that Raymond is an old building and I think I will try to limit my time spent down there). However, today I used a practice room in Skinner Hall, and that was quite lovely. Skinner is about a 15 min walk from Raymond, but it is a very beautiful walk. Walking around campus was actually one of the things I’ve been looking forward to in college, and Vassar’s campus just makes it such a treat! (Okay, I promise I’ll stop raving about the campus now...hopefully)

View of the Quad, Raymond is in the upper right

Probably the most unpleasant part of orientation has been the sessions spent with all 600+ other first-years in the chapel for various information stuff. The chapel is a lovely building, but there is no AC and most of us were suffering from sweaty and heat-induced sleepiness through most of these sessions, especially since they weren’t the most thrilling topics (ie, safety and security, student conduct, etc).

I suppose I should acknowledge the fact that I am here at this place because it is school, and I am going to take classes!! Currently, this a little bit of an overwhelming topic for me because I do not have my final schedule yet and might not until after classes start because I need to try to get a professor to add me to a Spanish language class that is already full. However, I’ve spoken with my advisor and gone over a plan for this, so hopefully it works out. Orientation has had several opportunities to find out about different departments and academic advising. I went to two faculty research presentations on psych related studies, a cognitive science study about how the internet can improve research methods to decrease the amount of false-positive results, and a psychology study that investigated the relationship between social networks and drinking on Vassar’s campus. I also went to a physics/astronomy one on galaxies, just for fun. I’ve spoken with people from the various departments I’m interested in, and am definitely excited for the academic learning component of my time here at Vassar. I don’t want to reveal my classes just yet, since I don’t know for certain what they’ll be, but I will let you all know soon!

Fruit stash :)

I really cannot fail to mention food in this experience, so I will devote at least a paragraph to this ever-intriguing topic. This is Vassar’s first year with a new and better food provider, and I have been pleasantly surprised. There is a thorough salad bar with decent fresh veggies, a stir-fry station, a make-your-own stir fry station, pizza, grill, hot food (changes each day), and a dessert area. They have sun butter! Also almond and soymilk, which I appreciate. I also had sweet potato tater tots today, which was interesting. I’ve been building up a bit of a fruit stash, but sadly they don’t have any berries. That is the thing I miss the most. However, we went to a Farmer’s Market today (as well as several other local restaurants that were giving out free samples to us), and there was lots of nice fresh produce there. So I believe I have options if I need them!

I realized I never really talked about moving in to this new place that I’m going to live in for a while now. Well, I live in Raymond, which is one of the residences on the main quad. It’s the oldest, so the rooms definitely feel a little worn-down, but our room is decently large and the dorm has charm. Our house team (older students in charge of stuff) also seems like a cool bunch of cats. Move-In was good, and I’m feeling relatively settled and pleased with this new living space and the ways that I am making it my own. We still have a few things to acquire for the room, which will hopefully be taken care of this weekend after we get our refrigerator and go to Target again.

My bed!!

My desk!!

That seems like a bit of an unexciting way to end, but I cannot at the moment think of anything interesting to say. Adios!