One Month In…

hey all!
its tuesday! i have NO CLASSES TODAY! and i also have no classes on fridays – but i have a massive project which is 20% of my 3-d art grade due tomorrow and i’m nervous of how it will be recieved but i know i have put 750% of my effort into it and it could not be better. so thats my life, but i really wanted to write a reflection about my first month in DC, my first month at college and specifically my first month at gw. so here we go why don’t we!

one month in…

well i moved in on august 23nd, so its actually been a few days but its the sentiment that counts. college has been a time to say the least. many many things have happened, both good and bad and i kinda want to break down both the best and the worst things so far here.
 

homesickness & a new place

so almost immediately, okay maybe it was a few days, but my first feeling about college was about how homesick i felt. you all know that i am from LA and am in school in DC those are two larger cities on the opposite sides of the country so clearly there is going to be things different about the places and the people but i didn’t think i’d be nearly as homesick as i was in my first week. i knew i’d be homesick, i wouldn’t call myself a ‘homebody’ nor would i call myself an ‘adventurer’ i’ve always just found a safe happy medium in the center. this huge change was not something i wasn’t ready for, but definitely was something that i could never have imagined. obviously, i literally wasn’t at home, but i was also not ‘at home’ in terms of the people and the experience. clearly college is NOT high school and i pretty much rocked high school so it was a huge switch up for me.

friends & people

one of the things that shocked me almost immediately is the idea that people already somehow seemed to be in groups by the time i got here. this could not have been further from the truth, honestly, no one was actually in a group just people weren’t being real enough for me to read that into. something that is really weird and different about GW is that we do not have a traditional campus, i’ve explained this more than countless times before but we’re all over the city and since we are in a city it’s often very lonely in existence. i’m not innocent with this, (i actually do this more than i’d care to admit)but it feels like everyone walks around wearing headphones and sunglasses and are in their own world and are very unapproachable. so its been REALLY hard meeting people and really getting to know them. but i LOVE the people who i live with, both my roommates and my neighbors and i love the people i have classes with! my people in my art classes are great – its an extreme bonding experience all being able to complain about projects together and these are the people who can seriously relate to my experience. but i love being able to go out with my roommates and neighbors, its good because it means my whole world is not dominated by art and that occasionally i get to talk about different things.

organization & classes 

as i’ve said, college is much different than high school, like in every sense of the word. i have had to experience a whole new level of organization. i am taking 3 art classes, one art history class and one writing course. art classes are very different than the ‘typical’ college experience, for me, they are 4 hours and 30 minutes long and only happen once per week. so i have three classes for 4.5  hours only once a week.  seems easy right?? seems like a light schedule?? nope, if you couldn’t guess, 4.5 hours is a long time. like longer than you could even imagine. its amazing for getting things done like seriously – when given that much time you can really get your butt into some real work but when you are doing something you don’t prefer it lasts an eternity. because i only have these classes once per week and my other classes twice per week only m&w i have no classes on tuesdays or fridays which has both proved to be dangerous and beneficial. the no friday classes are amazing in terms of exploring the city. i’ve been able to use my fridays to really get the full on ‘dc’ experience and especially being able to get to museums to finish homework assignments for my classes. but tuesdays can be dangerous – it feels so easy to just be able to just sit and get lazy, but you really gotta just power through and get your work done.

ups & downs

so you know my schedule, but you don’t know the background of it all. i signed up for classes online by myself, and had a basic idea of the classes i should be taking. i knew i’d be taking 3 art classes and ah & writing but its the art classes that i messed up on. i accidentally signed up for the wrong section of a class – and would not have known any better unless my advisor hadn’t checked my schedule because i booked an appointment. so i had to change classes and this made me two weeks behind in two different classes. it was horrible at first but have been working my butt off to make sure that i convince my teachers that i am not only just right on track with everyone else – but that i am even ahead and rocking all my class x100! because i always aim to impress!

conclusion

in short, college has been a whirlwind of feelings, experiences and people. finally after one month i feel that i am on a good footing and i can do this. i can pull through. i am excited for thanksgiving break – which i will not be going home (i’m still working on my plans but i’m sure it’ll be killer) and i’m ready to kill the rest of my first semester in college!