Hi,

My name is Megan, and I am entering my junior year at Syracuse University as an Advertising major with a creative emphasis and a psychology minor in the Newhouse School of Public Communications. Anyways, now that you know me by the way I introduce myself in any classroom on the first day, I’ll tell you a little bit about my first week of college at Syracuse University.

First thing’s first - when your parents drop you off, it is fully acceptable to sob violently and be inconsolably upset. Most people are in a horrible mood their first day anyway, you’ll be in the majority. There’s a moment after your parents leave for the first time that it really hits you that you’re legitimately on your own. No friends, no family, just you and your comfort water bottle. (Sidebar: I got a free water bottle from ‘Cuse my first week from some orientation event and I have had it for two years now and it is still my favorite water bottle. It has housed every single beverage you can possibly think of and has given me an excuse to get up and leave class to fill it up if I got bored. Very useful.) Once you’re left to your own devices, parents gone, what next?

My next move, being strategic and courageous and independent of course, was to call my mom. On her drive home. After twenty minutes. I’m honestly impressed I lasted even that twenty minutes, but there was a lot of crying. I would like to state for the record there is no shame in calling your mom after 20 minutes or even 5 minutes. Do what you gotta do. But I can promise eventually you will not want to call your mom because you’ll actually be having fun.

Fun seems very impossible the first week and even the first whole semester of college, but I swear it’s possible. For context, I am an insanely introverted person and Syracuse is an insanely extroverted school. If you’ve visited Syracuse or even heard of Cuse Basketball, you know what I mean. School spirit out the you-know-where. Me? Not so much. At least I wasn’t like that my freshman year. But your first week is prime time to make friends — EVERYONE is desperate to make friends, so if you talk to even one stranger on your floor or at an orientation event, chances are you’ll end up getting dinner together because neither of you have any other friends. And as pathetic as that sounds, it WILL turn out to be a good time.

Another sidebar because I won’t shut up about myself: my dorm building freshman year (Sadler floor 6, shoutout) had a GroupMe. If yours doesn’t have one, I would highly recommend putting a link to make one in your Facebook group for your class. Very helpful. But I digress; I woke up the morning after my first night alone and I texted in the group asking if anyone wanted to get breakfast with me. Three girls answered and went with me to breakfast. This was hands-down the worst, most awkward breakfast of my entire life. Not only was I so socially insecure, but I also felt like I was the ugliest one there (this obviously was not true and I know that now, but all the other girls with me were skinny and blonde, so you can see where I would be a little insecure). I barely ate, and I did not make any friends at this gathering I had instigated. Good job, Megan. I left very defeated, but I can tell you a full two years after this happened, I am now coincidentally friends with one of the girls from that breakfast. She also remembers it as the breakfast from hell, which is a comfort to me.

Back to my main point. You will make friends, but it might not be right away and that’s ok. My two best friends were friends I made my sophomore year. Another reason your first week SUCKS. As an introvert I was physically FORCING myself to do stuff like invite people to breakfast (never again), go to little orientation events, and talk to people in my classes. This was so GD painful for me but somehow I muscled through and made a few friends on my floor and two of my best friends in an intro class where we bonded over reading Harry Potter (yes, I am embarrassed) instead of anything remotely intellectual like the rest of the class.

Despite finally being able to make friends on campus, I wanted to share the MOST pathetic part of my first week at college, who knows, maybe this will make other people feel better! Or worse, who can tell. Anyways, it was my very first night alone and after a full day of moving in and then sobbing on my bed having a pity party, I was wiped out and I just wanted to sleep. I got my pajamas on and got in bed, my roommate hadn’t moved in yet, so I was alone alone. My brain decided sleeping was actually very dangerous and not ok for me to do in any circumstance. Locked door? Doesn’t matter. We’re on the sixth floor? Irrelevant. I will be murdered tonight. I decided since I had been trying to fall asleep for three hours, it was time to just pull an all-nighter because clearly I wasn’t sleeping. I watched YouTube videos for a long time, debated calling my mom but didn’t want to wake her up, and none of my home friends would be awake, so there I was. Suddenly, an idea struck me. An idea that I am proud of but was probably very weird of me to do. At 4 am, I decided, let me hop in the shower. Why you ask? I raise you, why NOT? I cried a lot during this entire experience, just for context, and the shower was not an exception. But when I got out, I felt so much better, though I’m not sure the science behind that. I’m in communications so if anyone would explain it to me, I’d happily accept. So I guess what I’m saying is, crying in the shower at 4 am is acceptable and even encouraged behavior. It does help if you’re truly out of options on what to do with yourself.

I guess I should wrap this up because if there’s a word count, I have definitely exceeded it. I’ll leave you with a few first-week tips:

1. Go to every orientation event you can — you will make friends there. Drag your roommate with you!

2. Find out about club/organization applications ASAP. I found out about a specific club application 30 minutes before it was due and the org now consists of all my best friends.

3. No one is judging you like you’re judging yourself. Everyone is a self-involved narcissist, so don’t even worry about “saying the wrong thing.” Chances are, they’re trying to figure what to say back to YOU.

4. If you’re introverted or just a nervous person (both me), drag your roommate with you to things first week. You’ll both benefit, it’s easier meeting new people with someone else, and you and your roommate will get to get to know each other.

5. Not liking your roommate is not the end of the world AS LONG AS you can cohabit the same space and be polite to each other. You absolutely don’t have to be besties with your freshman year roommate.

Congrats to you on getting into college, and I wish you the very best of luck. And if you’re going to Syracuse specifically, I’m psyched for you. Have blast wherever you end up, I promise it gets better than that first week.

All love,

Megan Adams, Syracuse ‘23