My First Week at OSU

My first week at Ohio State was… tempestuous. There were good moments, okay moments, and bad days. I’m not the most outgoing person, so I don’t have a clue how to socialize. I felt pretty lonely, especially when I saw other first years making friends and hanging out together. Even though I have friends from high school here, I haven’t spent a lot of time with them as they’re in other programs and live on a different side of campus. The loneliness got to me pretty quickly, and I was soon yearning to go home to my parents and siblings, where it was safe and I knew people. I also cried a bunch that week which was pretty out of character for me. So that sucked.

Adjusting to how different college was interesting, for sure. I’m a pretty independent person, but having the freedom to be able to walk down High Street at 12am if I really wanted to(even though I don’t, that sounds like a terrible idea) was overwhelming to think about. For once, I’m completely in charge of myself and just myself. No one else.

Although emotionally and socially speaking, my first week wasn’t super great, academically it went very well. One of the things I was worried about while making the switch from high school to college was the difference in workload, as well as time management. I haven’t had problems with this yet, as not being in class all day gives me lots of time to get stuff done. I’ve really enjoyed the classes I have this semester, as it’s all things I’m interested in. Like, I have no math! No bio! No chem! It feels so glorious. I did have one problem with a class, but I was able to visit my instructor during his office hours and figure it out with him. I guess all the advice of “go to office hours!” was true.

A picture of a lady holding one hand to her head while grimacing, as the other hand is holding a coffee cup that says “stress” on it

Me during the week

All in all, even though my first week wasn’t the best experience, I’m sure the rest of my first year will go great. There’s no point in dwelling in the negative; instead, I’m going to be as positive as I can and be excited for everything Ohio State has in store for me.