The first weeks of a college freshmen

Growing up, my brother was always my best friend. We grew up together. We were taught, and groomed together. We played sports together, and goofed around together. We were always referred to as the Worth siblings. In school, I was “Riley’s little sister”, or he was “her older brother.” All of his friends were my friends too, and all of my friends had known him their whole lives. Even when we started high school and had more separate lives, we still shared classes, homework and even lunch tables. When COVID changed everything, we were still together, doing homework from home, playing games during study halls and hanging out, as brothers and sisters do. We were known as the siblings that, when asked, always said “no we don’t fight, we’re best friends.” Then I got a job. A job where my brother was my boss no less. A job where I was supposed to listen to him and not be sarcastic. Which worked fine, until he left for college. 

When interviewing Riley, I set the scene. Or tried to. When asked about his surroundings he simply said “In college.” So I pressed for more information, and was told “On the sidewalk, walking back to the dorm.” A real picture setting response. So I decided to ask an easy question to get him started. I asked him to describe his favorite part of his college experience right now. To which he replied “Friends and doing interesting things with them and meeting new people.” Very eloquent. So the next question that I threw at him was what his least favorite part of his college experience was. He replied “Figuring out homework when the teachers don’t use online tools correctly” Throughout the beginning of his college experience he has struggled with the new and unexpected from his teachers. During high school he was able to get away with not turning in assignments and work on time. I inquire whether college has been an eye opener and he replies with a short and simple “yes.” Although this is not surprising, it is somewhat nice to be able to get him to admit it. I question him on whether there is anything that he wishes he could change. To which he replies “Uh.. my bedtime routine, getting to sleep earlier” As he is a teenager it is no big surprise that he struggles with going to bed on time. Whether it be from homework, friends, or just getting sucked into his phone. Evidently this is a large enough problem for him if he is willing to change it. So I asked him whether he enjoys college more than high school? To which he replied a very quick “yes” so I pushed him to answer why. “A bigger diversity of people means that if I don’t like someone for some reason then I don’t have to hang out with them. And it also means that if there’s only, if I only like 2% of people and there’s 8,000 kids compared to 400 kids at the high school, that means that the 2% is going to be a lot more to choose from” A very statistical example from someone who never took statistics, but overall he is having a much better time at college than at high school. 

While talking with him on the phone, he interrupts and says “can you hear me?” and the answer is that he cannot hear me. So I called him again. Apparently his service is not the best. 

Once back on track I questioned him about how he was accommodating to college life? He stated “Smoother than I thought it would be for making new friends, slightly more difficult than I thought it would be for work load.” He once again brought the conversation back to the fact that he had new friends and was enjoying his time with them. He also brought back the fact that he was feeling stressed about the amount of work that he had to do for his classes. So I inquired whether or not he would want to switch schools, or if he ever thought about going somewhere else. This seemed to stump him a little bit “Uhhh…. These are interesting questions. No, I don’t think so. In general I like this school, it’s not like I would have been a d1 athlete at george town.” A very specific example, but overall he likes his school, and has not thought about switching. 

At this point I wanted to switch gears and ask him more about his experience in actually applying to college. So I asked him what he would tell someone that is applying to colleges, and going to go to college soon? He responded “Apply early and often, so apply to a lot of schools, apply to a lot of different colleges that don’t have a fee, especially if you get the fee waived. Also apply for every single scholarship you can find, because there’s a lot more if you apply early, so like if you miss an initial batch and if you only get a few hundred dollars for every, I don’t know 10, you apply to that can add up really quick. Like I got good scholarships but I could have gotten even more scholarships if I had applied earlier” Good advice from a new college freshman. Advice that I will be taking and using to my advantage. Wanting to know more about his first day I asked him to describe it. He explained that it was  “87 degrees, I didn’t know anyone outside of Caleb (his roommate), and I was very very apprehensive that it was gonna be a repeat of high school. Like the first week I was here I was like ‘wow this sucks’ but that was just the first few days.” This response shows just how nervous he actually was about the new stage in his life.

To wrap up the interview I asked him what he missed most about home “Uh…. seeing you guys probably.” A very stereotypical answer that I asked him to elaborate on, he said “Being able to work and make money without stressing that I am missing something more fun.” By more fun he means the idea of going out with friends, as well as parties or gatherings that would not come up while at home. So I asked him whether or not he liked the unpredictability of college life or if he liked always knowing what was going to happen at home. To which he sighed and said “pass” when pressed for an answer he said “I don’t know, I literally do not know the answer, I have no idea” On that note I had to end the interview. He was going to referee a soccer game and had to leave. He concluded with “Thanks buddy, ok see you, peace out”

Image by Malissa Worth