I can’t believe I’m a senior already! The journey here has been a blast (definitely challenging but ultimately rewarding). Starting my last year here has me thinking about when I was a new student, and I felt like a small fish being thrown into a massive pond. For me, my freshman year was full of meeting new people, figuring out where everything on campus was, making mistakes, and so much growth. Here’s my thoughts looking back on that experience (because hindsight is 20/20):
1 . Meeting new people
One of the biggest things that the freshman experience afforded me was the surplus of opportunities to meet all my peers. Since I was a student in the Honors College, I was able to move onto campus a bit earlier than other students and one of the first things we got to do was go on our McCarthy Honor’s College retreat. This consisted of a day where we got to meet our RAs and do a campus scavenger hunt and go to a Sparks WNBA game. This was so much fun! There were also a ton of Welcome Week activities where USC threw events all around campus to celebrate the start of a new year. I also recall the dining hall being a huge place to meet new people. Everyone was so friendly and super interesting. I absolutely loved this aspect of freshman year (although at times I can admit it was a bit stressful).
2. Learning campus
I remember the Saturday before classes started, my roommate and I attempted to find where all of our classes were going to be for the new semester. It took us over 2 hours lol! At this point I don’t even remember not knowing where everything on campus is because it has truly become my home.
Here’s a picture I took of my roommate standing in front of her first class. We’ve definitely come a long way from this photo!!
3. Mistakes were made
Freshman year I remember being both very excited to get involved in everything that was offered at USC but also scared to feel like an imposter. I think ultimately the imposter syndrome stopped me from being as involved with things like RPL and my research, but I was able to overcome those feelings and really dive in my sophomore year. I also was able to learn how to manage my time better as the year progressed as well as how to approach the difficulty that was college level homework and projects.
4. GROWTH!
I learned so much and became so much smarter. I also was able to secure myself an internship after my freshman year which I never expected!
