The first month
A month ago today a young blonde girl stood framed in the doorway of the Winchester home of a family friend and prayed that her mother would hurry up and get her to her first day of college on time. This was, of course, wishful thinking, since she knew full well that time would never be her family's forte. Sure enough, after getting lost a couple times, they pulled up in front of the building where pre-orientation registration was taking place 20 minutes late, but that was hardly important, because there she was, finally, after so long waiting, at Tufts University.
I assume y'all have caught on to the fact that the girl is in fact me, since you're thinking of applying to an elite liberal arts university and are therefore brilliant souls. I remember that first day as clearly as I remember the recipe for my favorite chocolate chip cookies. I remember catching sight of my roommate, and feeling the gears in my brain turning until the realization that this was Sarah dawned on me. I remember hugging her and delighting with her at the amount of free stuff that was being handed out. I remember running through Tilton, our all-freshmen dorm, the day that everyone else moved in, trying to meet everyone at once and failing miserably at remembering any of the people I had just met.
A lot has happened during the first month, but the magic of that first day remains. Sure, there's been a lot of small talk, a lot of “I'm sorry, what's your name again?”. Slowly but surely though, the Class of 2019 has become a large family, filled with joy and excitement at the years to come. In my particular case, I've found a smaller family in the people on my floor. They're cool enough that they'll get their own post sometime in the future, but I feel that they at least deserve a mention here. The first floor of Tilton, or T1, has made the transition to a new country and a new life the smoothest it could possibly be. It's hard to be sad about the life you left behind when you're constantly laughing.
So here's to a month. A whirlwind month of activities, classes and random hallway dancing. Here's to the slow transformation of Tilton 110 from an empty shell of a room into home. Here's to T1, and to Sarah. Here's to the Class of 2019 of Tufts University. May you live long and prosper here.
(The picture credit goes to Tom Frikker, the shining light of T1, as he perfectly captured the Davis-Carty roommationship in one photo)