The First Semester of a College Freshman

When I first arrived on campus for pre-season, two weeks before classes started, I had an idea of what to expect. Based on conversations that I had with past teachers and with some of my older friends who are already in college, I knew it wasn’t going to be easy. I think back on my first semester of college here at Faulkner University, I remember all of the struggles I went through. “... what is just for its subjects is what is advantageous for itself.” (Plato Republic 15). I had to juggle school work, volleyball, my social club, and somewhere in there I had to have enough time to sleep. Not to mention I got sick multiple times throughout the semester. Dealing with that and trying not to skip too many classes so I wouldn’t be behind in my school work was a struggle in itself.

Even though people tried to prepare me how hard college would be, I had no idea the extent of it. It took awhile to discover the balance that I needed between volleyball practice, traveling for games, school, and a social life. “... as there is also a work, for the pleasure accords with the activity.” (Aristotle’s Ethics 221). I knew when I got on campus that I wanted to join a social club. Joining Delta Xi Omega created a dynamic that was unfamiliar to me. One of the hardest things I went through this semester was pledge week. I would have to say that pledge week is my Juno. I thought I was tired early on in the semester, but after that week, I was exhausted. To explain how exhausted I was, I even “misplaced” my car on the last night of pledge week. To be fair, it wasn’t actually misplaced, I was just so tired I didn’t realize I parked at the dorms instead of the multiplex. My pledge class was in the tv room of our dorms working on our pledge book when I realized I hadn’t turned in my Great Books questions.

Emma asked, “Mallory have you done you GB questions yet?”

“Oh crap, no. My backpack is in my car... which is at the multiplex.”

So I decided to walk to the multiplex to get my car to do my homework. My car was not there and I began freaking out. I walk all the way back to the dorms and I saw my car parked at the very front. I got my backpack out of the backseat and I walk back in with tears in my eyes.

“Y’all I walked all the way to the gym and my car wasn’t there. I thought someone stole my car! I was freaking out and walked back and I saw my car here. I’m literally so tired.”

Hope responds, “Dude you need to go to bed.”

I enjoy volleyball so much, but i have never had to deal with the stress of juggling the sport and school work as much as this first semester. Once we got into the away games and we started traveling, it was very stressful just because we missed a lot of class. It was very hard to do homework on the bus or in between games because I couldn’t focus. Luckily, I had great professors who helped me out when i missed class, but it still wasn’t the same as being there.

What I have learned in this first semester of college will teach me life lessons for the future and they will follow me throughout the rest of my academic and athletic career at Faulkner University. I know at the end of my college years, I will look back on this first semester and laugh because it won’t seem as hard then as it does now. “A joy it will be one day, perhaps, to remember even this.” (The Aeneid 54). However, as of right now, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel that is my first semester of college. “Any one individual activity which comes to an end at the appropriate time suffers no harm from its cessation.” (Meditations 119).