As freshmen finish first year, memories abound
For freshmen in college, there come a number of firsts: first time they’ve ever lived away from home, first time they’ve ever had to maneuver through peers who might already be married and the first time they’ve had to cram for finals.
As the USU class of 2016 finishes its first year of college education, freshmen shared some thoughts and reflections on the year.
“Just out of high school I was like, ‘I don’t know what life is,’ or whatever,” said Tyson Wheelwright, a freshman majoring in English. “So I was just like, ‘I’m going to go and do what my two older brothers did.’ So I just came up here.”
The choice to come to USU can be a big decision for a newly graduated high school senior.
“I came here because my family is here and my family had always come here, and nowhere else was even appealing to me,” said Natalie Haymore, a freshman majoring in family, consumer and human development.
“I mostly came here because it was too close to home, but it wasn’t too far away,” said Marci Jacobs, an undeclared freshman. “I just felt like UVU or BYU were just too close, but I didn’t want to be too far away so I could never go home.”
Moving away from home can be a blessing or a curse for new freshman, but it can give new students a good opportunity to learn how to live with other people.
“I knew most of my roommates before I moved up here, so I think that helped a lot,” Jacobs said. “It gave me comfort, before I moved, that I would have some friends.”
For some, the experience of living with strangers was a little shocking.
“I came up here and was unpacking my stuff, and my roommate just walks in and he’s just like this big jock guy, and I was like ‘Hey, we’re stuck with each other for awhile,'” Wheelright said. “But it just helped me realize that people are just people. It doesn’t matter where they come from, what they did in high school. My roommates are all my friends and they’re all just nice.”
Other students created friendships with their roommates right off the bat.
“I love my roommates,” said Andrew Carlsen, a freshman majoring in exercise science. “They’re great, and we get along really well. My one roommate works out with me all the time, and then I get to laugh at the other ones.”
Roommates become fast friends for students, but they still don’t always make the process of making other new friends always easy.
“I barely got kind of good,” Wheelwright said about making friends at college. “I felt like such a fish out of water for most of it, because I didn’t know that you could just talk to people.”
Haymore said the experience of not knowing anybody was an odd one.
“I’m getting better, like right now, the last week-and-a-half of school,” Haymore said. “In high school you know everyone, and even if you don’t talk to them you know who they are, and being somewhere where you don’t know anybody, it’s just like weird. I found it hard just to talk to random people.”
Then there is the dating scene that comes with being a college student and the surprising new obstacles that come with being a freshman.
“It sucks being a ‘premiee,'” Carlsen said.
A “premiee”, Carlsen said, is the term given to new freshman who have not served their mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but are planning to do so.
“You’re automatically marked as unattractive and unavailable,” Carlsen said.
Wheelright said he doesn’t like the stigmas surrounding the dating scene at USU.
“I went on things, but I just didn’t call them dates,” Wheelwright said. “When you say the word ‘date,’ it just scares people because they think of marriage. So if you just say, ‘Hey do you want to hang out?’ You just say hang out, but really it’s a date.”
Wheelright said if a student gets rejected from hanging out with someone, it isn’t nearly as bad as getting turned down by a girl when she is asked out on a date. Greater challenges come when trying to date as a college student because once in college, students are immediately mingled with students who have already found their husband or wife, he said.
“It’s just freaky that people are married,” Wheelwright said.
“I just avoid men with rings,” Jacobs said.
For every freshman, the year finally does come to an end. The realization sets in that as hard a college always seemed to be, there is still a lot of fun that comes with it, Haymore said.
“I’m excited to go home for the summer, but at the same times it’s sad to think that I won’t be living with or by the same people,” Haymore said. “It’s weird because a year ago you didn’t know them at all, and know we’re like best friends and we spend so much time together. It’s bittersweet, kind of.”
– kiel.reid@aggiemail.usu.edu