well, orientation stressed the frick out of me, to a whole other level!! I had no idea what I was doing and I had to stay overnight in a dorm with a person I didn’t even know! but God has a magical way of working things out, and everything turned out to be alright!
the first day my mom and I drove up to minnesota was the day before orientation! we met my roommate and her mom before dinner and oh my goodness gracious we literally are the same people!! my mom and I had the absolute best time and I cannot explain how grateful I am that she’s my roommate! but, we didn’t have the same orientation dates due to her graduating and my mom and I’s trip to california! so I was in this completely alone and I was scared out of my mind! my roommate had no idea what would happen there either so I was also clueless!
then my mom and I woke up for orientation and i just really didn’t want to go because I didn’t wanna sleep alone in a room with someone I had never met before!! also I wouldn’t even be with my mom for the majority of it so I was even more of a nervous wreck! before doing anything for orientation my mom and i set up my u card and set up a whole other checking account for me and I was confused as heck! nothing made sense but my mom kept having me sign forms and I was so lost! but I got a free university of minnesota sweatshirt out of it so that’s good!
we ended up going into the theater and listening to the welcome presentation and then I was split up from my mama! turns out though, they split you up by college! so I went to the room for the college of design students from that orientation! there was only like 15 of us and I was so incredibly grateful because that meant it wouldn’t be too hard for me to like talk and converse! the majority of them were from wisconsin and minnesota but there was one kid from wyoming and one other kid from illinois as well!
orientation wasn’t really that bad at all because you stuck with your group the whole time, no matter what activities you were doing. so it was super nice to at least kinda know some people as we were going about our activities! at lunch one girl asked me if I had a roommate yet and of course I frickin didn’t and I was scared out of mind! but she was super cool and beyond nice so she asked me to room with her and of course I said yes and most of all of my stress was relieved! but we also got thrown a crap ton of information so I started freaking out and getting super overwhelmed! and then once I figured out that we would basically be registering for our classes by ourselves I was for real scared out of my mind!!
we had activities that went until about 9:45 at night, so a little group of us went to grab insomnia cookies (absolutely amazing if you’ve never had one, you need to try!!!) and then basically just went to our room! the next morning I had breakfast with my mama and then tried getting to Rapson hall by myself (and with my mama) to register for classes alone!!
once I got there it wasn’t all so bad! the advisers helped us decide what major courses we should be taking for the fall but we could decide some other classes because we had so many electives to fill! I ended up being able to enroll in all the classes I wanted to and then got a free shirt! so overall my experience at orientation was an overwhelming one but also very needed! otherwise I would’ve had a mental breakdown on the first day of college!
~Elsa
PS - Here are a couple of fun photos from our drive - did you catch our stories on Instagram with all of the dead deer on the road??? OMG!
I know I am a little bit older but there is so much I do not remember from my own college orientation. Like did I sleep in a dorm with a total stranger?????? Because that is what Elsa had to do and thankfully a sweet girl approached her and asked her to room with her for the night. I mean there was so much anxiety about this and I felt like grabbing Elsa and running the heck out of there.
Now I completely understand why Elsa and I had separate orientations (as a matter of fact, the parent one was optional - of course I signed up!) They are clearly getting these kids ready to leave the nest and they have to start taking responsibility but the sleepover thing in the dorm doesn’t really make any sense to me. One night with a stranger? Weird right?
She will be fine.
Back to orientation...information OVERLOAD. I expected this of course, but I need a few days just to digest everything. I guess I am feeling this way because I want to know what is available to Elsa in case she needs help. But as I sit here writing this, they are sharing the same information with her and she will be more than capable of getting the help she needs. As a matter of fact, there is a website via the university for EVERY SINGLE THING you can imagine. Right at her fingertips. But man this is hard. Hard to get ready to let go.
She will be fine.
I mean they talked about the hours of studying they will have to do. They said something about 2 hours MINIMUM for every one hour in the classroom and they calculated it to like 40+ hours a week total between studying and classroom time - that is a FULL TIME JOB! Now I realize that going to college is like a full time job but this girl didn’t get enough sleep in high school because of the amount of studying she did, how in the world is she going to get enough sleep in college????
She will be fine.
And then Elsa called me and said she met so many great people in her major already (they grouped them together depending on their college and major for orientation) and she even has a class with one of them. What?? How did that happen so fast?? She already has her class schedule for her first semester! There is no screwing around at orientation. As a matter of fact while Elsa was meeting with her advisor and setting up classes, the next round of students were lining up for the next orientation session.
Clearly colleges know exactly what they are doing and they are there to help your child be successful.
She will be fine and I will be fine too :)
~Jen
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