Dear freshman self — we’ve come a long way
Reflections as my time to #NAUGrad gets closer
By Darlin Ortega
Dear freshman self — we’ve come a long way.
At NAU Move-in, I felt excited for the new experiences I was going to go through. Being 2 hours away from home and supposedly “find myself” like most college videos said.
However, I was very surprised that most of the experience was challenging.
A day after my parents dropped me off, I felt sooo homesick.
I didn’t think that was going to be possible since I was only 2 hours away, but it happened.
What added to the feeling was seeing already established friend groups at college. I didn’t know a SINGLE person at NAU — most of my peers went to UofA.
I couldn’t believe the challenges that came my way like roommate issues and issues with friend groups. I honestly felt like the least of my worries was the schoolwork, which was what I was prepared for the most.
Rooming with a complete stranger really is a hit or miss. In my experience, unfortunately, it’s been a miss. Sometimes you realize you have different expectations and lifestyles and aren’t compatible. I had to go to the trouble of getting in contact with housing to move out because it became a real issue my freshman year.
A common phrase you’ll hear in college is “We’re all adults here” and you realize that it’s when lifestyles and who you are as a person don’t always mesh effortlessly.
Reflecting you’ll see that it may revolve around communication issues and coming from different backgrounds — and how most, if not all of us — really are trying to live on our own and be independent for the first time.
My End Game
My freshman self wanted to study everything, but she came to NAU to major in Marketing with the end goal to have jobs lined up to be a marketing manager.
Now, sure I still wouldn’t mind that path; however, I don’t really have a job lined up.
Freshman year me, was clueless and desperate to find out what I’d like as a potential job. Senior year me, has discovered it.
I have realized though that I LOVE working in social media thanks to my internship.
I love creating content, covering events, and uploading to social media.
It has brought an ease to me knowing this because now I can go out there and look for something similar to it, or like my dad has joked around become an influencer since I love working this closely to social media.
I’ve even gotten on-camera time. Something I was definitely weary of when I first started. Now, it’s a weekly thing!
Fast forward to senior year. Here’s what came true and what didn’t.
What has come true is that I did grow and change as a person. Despite my challenging experience, especially during the first year, I wouldn’t change it for anything. I lost friends because they didn’t want to hear my side and outcasted me.
I took that and learned to be okay doing things on my own.
Honestly, freshman year me wouldn’t have been able to that because she really wanted friends to do things with. Sophomore year me bounced back, made new friends and along the way found a partner too, which I wasn’t expecting at all!
Another thing that came true was low test scores. I never really scored low on tests in high school, but I also didn’t have to study too hard either.
Getting to college was a bit eye-opening having to sit down and find a study method that would work for me. However, I was also surprised by how half of taking the exam was trying to understand the Professor’s way of writing the exam. So a rule of thumb of mine was, if the first exam didn’t go my way that’s okay because I now understand how their exam is written.
One thing that didn’t happen is I that I thought during my time at college I would feel more like an adult.
I feel I have become more independent, but I’ve always been. Perhaps coming home adds to the feeling that I don’t feel like an adult because I have more rules to follow compared to being on my own where I don’t have any. Age-wise, I can be considered an adult, but I don’t feel like one and sometimes I don’t perceive my friends as adults either.
Rather we’re kids with jobs at college. It’s changed my way of perceiving adults.
Which brings me to my final piece of advice — here’s what I want you to know aka my lessons learned.
You’ll struggle to find your place or sense of belonging. It took me a while to find my true friends at college.
Not everyone’s place is at college. My freshman year, I had a lot of friends drop out because they realized that college wasn’t for them at the moment — and that was perfectly okay.
Everyone has a different journey and theirs wasn’t at college at that time. I feel that I learned a lot from them because they knew that their journey wasn’t at NAU and did what was right for them.
I didn’t know what was right for me and it motivated me to want to find it.
Getting tired at college is a different type of tiredness. In high school, I used to wake up at 5 am to get ready for school at 7 am. My freshman year I had an 8 am because I thought that as an early morning person, it would be doable — especially compared to my high school schedule.
I was wrong. I struggled to get up to make it to my 9:35 am classes in college. I would be worn out after 2 classes in college in a day. I powered through it, but I was constantly tired.
I learned from that experience and took classes between 10 am to 3:35 pm to feel not as tired.
Another thing that I learned was everyone really does want to help you. During my freshman year, I kept hearing about all the resources on campus and a part of me thought “oh they’re just pushing it because they have to.”
However, during my sophomore year, I had a lot that happened and sought help. I went to my mentor from my First Scholars program to ask them where and what I should do.
They guided me through it all and helped me reach out to other resources and to my professors. From that experience, I was surprised by how many people were willing to work with me and help me.
It taught me that it is about just saying you need help, because if people don’t know you need help- then they won’t be able to.
🎓 Last NAU Chapter 🎓
I’ll miss my time here.
These 4 years have flown by and I’m nervous that it’s coming to an end so soon. However, I’m grateful for my time at NAU. Going to NAU and staying was the path for me.
Every experience that I went through has shaped me into the person that I am today.
To the future Lumberjacks, I had no guidance when it came to college so I really had to try and figure it all out on my own.
However, it’s okay to fail or feel stuck, that was part of my journey.
It’s part of growing up and becoming your own person. Just remember that there are people here for you to help you along the way!
