 By Graham "GSM" Matthews This weekly blog will document my firsthand experiences as a student at Endicott college. Additionally, I will attempt to offer advice to fellow college students or those looking to attend college down the line. There was a popular song out a couple of years back entitled "I Love College", which listed everything that is awesome about being a college student. While I didn't necessarily like the song, I have found myself thinking about its title quite a bit over the last week. My first full week here at Endicott can be summed up in three words: I love college. After spending close to two weeks packing, I finally left for Endicott college on the morning of Sunday, September 1. For those who didn't read my previous blog post, Endicott is located in Beverly, Massachusetts, which is approximately two and a half hours away from where I live. We (my parents and I) finally arrived in the afternoon and met up with my new roommates. I've had to share a room in the past with my little brother, but I was worried about having a roommate in college, let alone two of them. Fortunately, they were both very cool and I've since formed a friendship with one of them. It took a while to unpack everything (I brought close to six full boxes with me), but once it was finally finished, my roommate and I went to dinner, where we split up into groups. We didn't do much for the rest of the day, but I had the opportunity to organize everything in my room and desk during one of the free periods we had. The next two days were dedicated to freshman orientation. We were given brunch on Monday morning and were bombarded with activities for the rest of the day. We were treated to an illusionist that night, which was pretty cool. We were forced to dress in "business wear" on Tuesday due to being the day of our class picture. I met the teachers in the school of communication (since I'm majoring in journalism) and that went by fairly quickly. Actually, all the activities went by fairly quickly, but I anxious for classes to end so the orientation would come to a close.
The biggest difference between high school and college is the classes and how they are set up. I had two classes on Wednesday, both of which were only 50 minutes long, so they went by in the blink of an eye. I have classes at 8 o'clock everyday, but I'm not complaining. I'm waking up later that I did when I was high school, so it could be worse. Both of my Wednesday classes were great, as were the two classes I had on Thursday. Those classes were 75 minutes each, but they also were rather quick. I was assigned a handful of homework, but not an overwhelming amount. I have much more time during the day than I did during high school, so that's one of the biggest benefits to being a college student. Of course, it's all about how wisely you manage said time and use it to your advantage. Most of the people I've encountered thus far are pretty friendly, too. I made a number of new friends this past week (I knew no one here aside from a few kids I met at orientation and one girl I used to go to school with a while back) and I've gotten to know a few of the kids on my floor as well. I went over to another kid's room on Wednesday to hang out, play video games and watch a movie, so that was a fun time. I attended the women's soccer game on Wednesday, which was boring since there was no one there, but the football game today was really fun. I never liked going to the football games while I was at high school, but I enjoyed the electric atmosphere today when I went. I would say another big change from high school to college is the maturity level. Sure, there's still a lot (probably more) drinking in college then there was in high school, but from what I've seen so far, most of the students don't act like complete children half of the time. That was one major gripe I had with high school and I'm glad that is different here. I have yet to meet someone who enjoys professional wrestling as much as I do, but I was able to get one of my roommates to watch it with me on Friday night, which was cool. I haven't really exposed the fact that I'm a wrestling fan yet, but the people who do know don't seem to have an issue with it. Of course, with the good, there's always the bad. I've enjoyed every aspect of college thus far except for the communal bathrooms in my room. Not every dorm has them, but mine does. I've made the most of it so far, but they are absolutely disgusting and aren't cleaned all that often. I've had no problems with the showers so far and the stalls will take some getting used to, but they haven't at all hindered my college experience. While here, I'll be looking to hone my craft as a journalist. Writing is one of my passions and almost all of the classes I'm taking right now are enjoyable. I'll be attending a meeting next week to try to get on the school newspaper and I'll be talking to someone next week regarding getting my own radio show (hopefully pro wrestling oriented) on their station soon. The people have been friendly, the food has been delicious (for the most part), and everything else had been going great in general. Honestly, I haven't been homesick at all, and seeing how I was independent long before coming to college, I think the rest of my time here will be equally accommodating. The first full week was a success to say the least, and I'm extremely excited for what the future holds. |
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