Hello, reader(s?)! My name is Sonja Hartmann and I am an incoming freshman in the Class of 2019, hailing (sometimes literally with these afternoon storms) from the beautiful Boulder, Colorado. If you’re reading this blog, we already have something in common because I have been perusing Jumbo Talk for the past 10 months, becoming increasingly obsessed with Tufts and its welcoming online forums. Finding my way to where I am now as an incoming student and brand-new blogger has resulted from a whirlwind of decisions, emotions, and experiences, and I could not be more thrilled to grow into this new position. So, please, join me as I navigate college life, forgive me if my jokes don’t always make sense, and indulge me by reading my very first blog post about this place I’m at right now.
The summer before college is an odd one. School has always been a big part of my life and even a chunk of my identity, so the time between my high school graduation in May and classes starting in early September has felt like a sort of limbo. I feel I’ve outgrown the schools I’ve known for the past twelve years and I’m ready to take charge of my education at a real university, but the reality of college life is still so mystical and intangible to me that I don’t quite know what to think.
Balancing my increasing excitement for the experiences to come with trying to keep expectations at bay has culminated in an overwhelming amount of emotion that might just burst if I don’t move into my dorm next week. Luckily for me (and whoever would have to clean up the mess if I really did explode), my Tufts journey is rapidly approaching, and I want to pause to articulate some of the reasons that I feel the exuberance that I do.
Basically, I can’t wait to build relationships and learn more about both the world and myself through this special institution, and it’s all starting in a few days! You could say my euphoria is jumbo-sized, and I can’t wait to see how it grows over the next four years.