First Year Experience Series Part One: Danielle

"First Year Experience Series Part One: Danielle", July 2008

Not everyone has the same first year experience. However, there are a lot of commonalities between most people. We at MacInsiders want to show incoming first year students the variety

of experiences that are available, and what transitional issues you may face as a university student. As the creator of the series, my story is up first.

I was happy to be starting my first year at McMaster. I was sick of the cliques in my high school, I was sick of all the petty back-stabbing and drama, and I was glad I wouldn’t have to see most of those people again. I was happy to leave my small little village, and move on to something larger; where there were more things to do than sit in front of the corner store and get high (because unlike most of the people I grew up with, I valued my brain).

Although I was excited about the new chapter in my life, I met a lot of difficulties early on. First of all, because neither of my parents have a post-secondary education, I was on my own for a lot of things. MacInsiders and Facebook didn’t exist back then, and there was no summer orientation programming to help me choose my courses. I learned all of that on my own by stumbling through. I made a few mistakes (like not realizing a Term 3 course was a full year course, instead of what I thought was a course only offered in the summer), but I know I wasn’t the only one who did.

When I got my residence assignment at the end of July, I was very disappointed. I got my last choice; a triple bunk and loft, and in a residence I didn’t know anything about. When I came on Welcome Day, I checked out Whidden, and felt let down. It was ugly, it was old, and I had to share it with two other people. I had really wanted a suite in Mary E. Keyes, which was the newest residence at the time. However all of the other things I saw that day distracted me from my residence assignment, and I realized that I had made the right choice in choosing Mac.

Move-in day was kind of hectic, but at the same time very efficient. All of my stuff was taken to my room by this loud and crazy people in brightly coloured jumpsuits (there was a lot and it was heavy...[I over-packed]). My mom cried, my parents left, and I was on my own. I met a bunch of people on my floor, and in my res, and hung out with them while my res reps took us to dinner in Westdale. I also learned the most pivotal cheer (Whidden Whidden Whidden! Bash Bash Bash! Whidden Whidden Whidden! Bash Bash Bash! Whidden! Bash! Whidden! Bash! Whidden Whidden Whidden! Bash Bash Bash!). By 6pm that night I was so happy with the attitude in my residence it didn’t matter how it looked. I was happy to call Whidden Hall home.

That night, after bedracer and airbands tryouts, a bunch of people and I went out to play Ultimate Frisbee until about 2AM. Afterwards, another friend and I stayed out until 4AM watching deer in Faculty Hollow. I was awoken at 8AM, and had another day jam-packed of activities and things to do as well as meeting people and making friends. The next seven days were much of the same. The next few days flew by in a blur and before I knew it Welcome Week was over. It was time to get down to business...classes.

I started class, some of which I liked, and some of which I utterly detested. My first round of midterms and essays came up. The essays I did fine on, the midterms I should have studied for more. However, for the second round of midterms I did better, and improved some of my essay marks as well. My first set of exams came and went, and I ended up more or less satisfied with my grades.

Unfortunately, I did spend a lot of my first year quite ill because of a medical condition. I didn’t know I could get excused from class due to the illness by getting accommodations from the Centre for Student Development (CSD). I wish I had known, because that would have prevented me from losing a lot of tutorial marks. I suggest that everyone should see what CSD has to offer, because they have a lot of useful resources for students.

Second semester started, and the classes were a lot of the same from the previous term. I took a second year class, and in hindsight I probably shouldn’t have. The expectations for second year classes are much higher than first year classes. I did okay, but I probably would have done much better in the class if I had taken it after my first year. On the whole, I did better than I did in first term (with the exception of calculus), because I learned from my mistakes in the previous term.

Over the course of my first year, I got involved with the Inter-Residence Council as a FLIRC, and was a Hall Rep for the Maroons. I really was happy to represent Whidden. After all of my initial misgivings, I was really happy that I got placed there. I also helped out with one of the MSU Presidential campaigns, and was involved in a club on campus. I was lucky that I didn’t get over-involved like many other first years. I figured out how to balance everything so that I still allotted enough time for school work. Sleep on the other hand I wasn’t so good with getting enough of. I learned to nap, which helped though.

Another difficulty I faced was that both my grandfathers died in a span of five months. Although academically I didn’t really struggle, there were a lot of other things that were happening in my life that were challenging. Regardless, I got through it. A lot of what you go through in first year is difficult, but it’s all part of growing up. There are lots of resources out there to help you; you just need to seek them out on your own.

All in all, it was a great year. I made lots of friends; people from all over the province, country and world. Even though most of us have graduated, I’m still in close contact with a lot of the people I met in that year, especially the ones I lived in residence with. Sure, I made some mistakes, but it’s to be expected. You learn a lot in your first year, and it’s definitely not all from books and lectures! Most of it has to do with yourself.

And you know the people I mentioned earlier that were loud and obnoxious and wore the brightly coloured suits? I was one of them. I was really happy I got to help out others the way my reps helped me. Does Howard Whidden like to ski??

Of course, this was only a brief overview of my first year. If I had gone into more detail this article would have been pages upon pages long!

If you want to share your first year experience with others, please post it here. MacInsiders has the aim of posting at least one experience from now until the end of August, that way you can see the variety of experiences that people have in their first year. If you have any other questions, send me a personal message.