It’s been two full years since I first stepped into my res room in SJU, full of hope and excitement and readiness to meet new people and learn new things. I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t also filled with dread at having to start all over again. I was one of five in a graduation class of 400 to come to Waterloo. Although one of my longest friends would also be in Waterloo Eng, we were living in different places on campus. We were in different programs and for me that might as well have meant we didn’t even go to the same university.
I’m lucky, every summer I’d be packed off to sleep-away camps, so the prospect of being away from home for an extended period of time was supposed to be no big deal. Still, when the door closed after my mum’s last “Good luck honey, I love you” I felt a twinge of regret, I wanted to yank open that door, run after her and say “Take me back, it was a mistake, I can’t do this!!” But I didn’t. I sat on my bed and shortly thereafter in came my new roommate and the whirlwind of O-Week began.
For many of you this is your first test of “adulthood”. Can you wash your sheets, eat healthy, and stay on top of your studies without someone breathing down your neck about it? Maybe not at first, and maybe not for a while. You’ll feel homesick and overwhelmed by classes. You’ll call your parents and Skype your friends about the stress and the pressure but then something will change. It’s gradual so it’s likely you won’t notice it happening, but one day you’ll take a step back and you’ll say “I belong here”.
It might be during dinner with some random people you’ve never met, it might be midnight messing around in the computer lab working on a group project, it might be at a party or at an EngSoc event, but one day you’ll see that despite the terror you feel today, you are no longer just a “first year”. You’re a Waterloo engineering student. You’ll know that this is your campus, these other students are your fellow students, and this is your future that you are living.
I don’t want to seem like I’m saying one day everything will be perfect, because it won’t be. We all feel the fear of being alone, of missing our families, of not passing or of falling behind; what I’m saying is that one day you’ll stop noticing these things as much because you’ll have better things to focus on. Things like friends and that one class you LOVE and extra-curriculars. Perhaps your fun indulgence will be a shoetag class or the bi-weekly EngSoc meetings (they’re fun, I always look forward to them!), maybe you’ll come join me at the Iron Warrior office (I hope you do!) and we can chat and drink tea like great chums.
The thing is, everyone tells you about the awesome friends you’ll make in university and about how these will be the best years of your life. I can tell you from experience that it’s hard to make the people you meet during O-Week into friends. Finding your “group” is a challenge. Somehow though, friends do come. I mean hang out long enough in POETS and you’ll have a huge group of new friends!
Whatever you do, don’t put pressure on yourself to constantly be having the time of your life! You’re under enough outside pressures as it is, so know that everyone around you is struggling with the same feelings and that this is just part of the uni experience, we just don’t talk about it as much. The time of your life comes when you’re least expecting it, so less you stress the better your experience will be.
Before I go, and though you will read this 1200 times in this issue (I totally counted because that’s my job) your health and happiness are the most important things. If you find no joy in something that you’re doing, talk to someone and make a change in your life, we have so many resources on campus for just such things.
Setting out on this new adventure is so awesome and despite the trials and pains I had to go through to be where I am today I would go back to O-Week in a heartbeat! I wish you all the best of luck in your new journey, as the old Irish say: May the road rise up to meet you and may the wind be always at your back. And may you join the Iron Warrior team! (Shameless plug)
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