Coming to college for the first time is stressful. Maybe you do not know anyone and you have to make all new friends, you are starting the next academic chapter in your life, or maybe you are so excited about college and you have been waiting for this for a long time. No matter where you are in your transition to college, you will be pleasantly surprised whenever you walk on campus and you see Orientation Board waiting for you with a smile.
Your college experience is going to start with a bunch of upperclassmen coming to your car and carrying all of your stuff to your new room, so you will not have to carry anything. That is just the start of the blessing that is the Orientation Board (OB). Next, you will go to orientation and go to all of your meetings. This can seem very boring and mundane, but as a senior, I would love to go through that process all over again. Do not take it for granted.
Then the real fun begins, because that same night you will go to a dance called the “Graffiti Dance” where you wear a white T-shirt and you get signatures all over your shirt from all of your new classmates. It is such a special thing to go back and look who signed your shirt years later and realize that there are names on there that are your best friends now and you did not realize it that night.
Then there are more events on campus held by OB that will get you familiar with the campus but also familiarize you with your classmates, so you can make new friends very quickly. Just about everyone there is in the same boat as you and they are excited to be able to make friendships just like you. There are several days on campus where it is just the freshmen and OB, along with a couple of the fall sports teams preparing for their seasons. Then after a couple of days, the rest of campus will arrive, and you have even more people to meet and a lot more people that can be your friends.
Being on such a small campus is so nice during this week because you are all forced to be together all the time and make friends, whether you want to or not. The campus is not confusing, and you will be overprepared by the time the week is over. The whole OB group is welcoming and will help you with whatever you need. There is a lot more than what I talked about in this blog, but there is so much fun to be had here on campus at the start of your college experience.
