Tufts Blogs

The day before Spring classes started, snow filled the skies over Tufts. Between the white-covered lawns contrasted by the glittering Boston skyline, walking through campus felt like the inside of a snow globe. On this seemingly normal occasion, while other students were reuniting with their friends or settling back into their dorms, the 2023 Civic Semester cohort was moving into college for the first time. 

I was nervous about adjusting to school in the middle of the year (especially as a freshman). Would I have to constantly explain that I’m not a transfer student? Would everyone already have a defined friend group? Would it be awkward to put campus buildings in Google Maps when other students had months of learning the campus? 

These were all questions that quickly faded away like the flurries that covered campus. As the white dots fell gracefully from the sky, my worries floated away with the wind. It wasn’t that my worries didn't exist but I realized I wasn’t alone. For every fear and anxious thought I had about finding my place on campus, every single other student in my class of 1,600 felt the same way only a few months ago. 

On the first snowfall of the semester, Prez Lawn was swarmed with students. Some had snowboards and skis borrowed from Tufts Mountain Club. Some had overpriced sleds from Target. Even still, other students used plastic lids of buckets to go down the hill. Surrounded by my cohort from the Civic Semester and friends I had met in my dorm, we laughed together watching people sled down the lawn. Some fell off after the first drop; some made it to the fence. What mattered was that each person who dared to sled down the hill walked back up laughing and ready to try again. 

That is what I will try to do this semester—be someone who laughs through my failures and smiles through my successes. What I keep reminding myself is that any obstacle or worry that I face on campus is nothing compared to the challenges that the Civic Semester prepared me for.