When I left my orientation last June, I was convinced I made the wrong choice for college. From icebreakers to awkward get-to-know-you fact sharing, orientation presented itself as my personal purgatory.
When my dad and I hit I-85 headed back to Charlotte, relief swelled from every pore that I wouldn’t have to do another “rah-rah” chant for at least two more months.
If orientation was any indication, college would make me want to crawl out my own eyelids. I hoped that the remainder of summer would go by as slowly as the two-day orientation went; August could never come as far as I was concerned.
But UNC is a world of its own; I just needed to be submerged in its contradictions to truly understand that.
If you’re reading this and happen to be struggling while at orientation, I want you to know it’s not too late to have an amazing first year.
It just took getting to campus to realize that my orientation experience was in no way indicative of my first-year experience. At orientation, I felt isolated while everyone seemed to be making friends and setting themselves up for the best year ever. However, conveying the true college experience is impossible in 48 hours. In fact, two semesters is just scratching the surface.
When I got to campus, I learned the UNC experience was to be made, not to be found through silly cheers and first-week guidebooks.
Orientation doesn’t prepare you for the incredible things that happen during your first year, like ’90s dances, coed fraternities, surges of self-discovery, Buns and many other quintessential experiences that aren’t necessarily classic UNC traditions.
