The University of Rhode Island has become a second home to thousands of us every year. As we return to campus for another semester, we often face similar situations throughout the first week of classes. Walking through your new, daily routine this semester at URI, perhaps you experienced similar situations during your first week back.
New Classes
New class schedule, new faces, new professors. If there was ever a time to make a good first impression in college, it would be the first day of classes. Each semester presents classes filled with new faces and a few months of untapped potential.
Ice Breakers
The first day of class is always a getting-to-know session with your fellow classmates. You'll be encouraged to remember new names and pair them to new faces, often through a class-wide activity. Depending on the class, you may even be given an assignment to introduce a fellow classmate during the next class session.
Searching For Familiar Faces
You can soon enough find yourself looking around for friends on campus, hoping to see a familiar face or simply say hello to people you haven't seen in months. Searching the thousands of faces walking past and finding a familiar one can give you a simple moment of relief, feeling that you're coming back to a familiar, well-known place.
Similar Faces
Searching for familiar faces around campus, you most likely glanced upon a person who looked just like your friend but before shouting their name across the quad, you took a closer look and realized it's definitely not them. Finding a friend look-a-like can feel deceiving at first but then contributes to the excitement you feel once you finally see that friend once again.
Remembering Graduates
Alongside seeing similar faces that you first perceived as your friend, you probably had to remind yourself that the friend has already graduated. Remembering that some of your older friends have already left campus can give you a sudden, sad feeling as you have to face the reality that you won't be crossing paths with them on campus anymore. Even though you may not pass them on campus, you can still find happiness in the glory that is iMessage or social media to let that friend know you're thinking of them.
Parking Struggles
Church parking, Fine Arts or Plains Rd, we all have to scrimmage for a parking spot before class. The first week of class means everyone must attend, leading to everyone bringing their car and trying to find a parking spot. With not enough parking spots and too many students with cars, people often have to circle around the parking lot until they find someone walking towards a car, meaning they can grab the parking spot once their car leaves.
Rhody Shuttle Service
Since the Rhody Shuttle Service picks up students parked at the Plains Rd parking lot to then drop them off along the campus route, the timing must be perfect for you to park your car and rush to claim a spot on the shuttle bus. If you get there too late, there may not be enough room for you to fit in the bus and you'll have to wait for the next one to arrive. If you don't have the timing down perfectly, it could result in you running late to class.
Time Gaps Between Classes
As you learn a new schedule, you figure out the length of a time gap you have between classes. If you have free time between classes, you can figure out which friends have similar schedules and who you can spend time with during those gaps. Being on campus nearly all day long means you also have to incorporate time for lunch and determining if you'll bring food or leave campus for it. Time gaps between classes can be a struggle or a blessing, based entirely on how you use the time.
Although the University of Rhode Island welcomes about 15,000 undergraduate students each year, there are similar situations that will connect nearly all of the thousands of students together. As we arrive back on campus and begin another semester at URI, we encounter situations that hinder us all alike. With a new semester underway, I wish you all good luck in your academics and endeavors. Have a great semester!