College Life: Freshman Year

A Little About Myself

Wow. I am officially done with high school. No more living at home, seeing my pets every day, and going to class with my childhood friends. Soon I will be embarking on a new journey. This year, I will be living in a dorm at a small, private college. The dorms at my college are set up in suite styles, so two rooms share one bathroom. I already know who my roommate is because I chose not to do a random roommate. However, my suitemates will be random. I met my roommate by looking through a Class of 2027 Instagram account for the college I will be attending. The account posts pictures of people who choose to send pictures in, and the captions they include are bios about those people. In the caption my roommate wrote, I saw that we had similar interests, so I started DMing her. She was honestly the first person I felt like I was having a real conversation with, and I had talked to a ton of people before her. After talking for a while, we met up in person and hung out. Then we decided to be roommates. We both had talked to so many people by this point, so we didn't truly feel like talking to more people to try and find suitemates. The hard part about trying to find suitemates would be that you're only messaging one of the people, and you don't know what that person's roommate is like. So we decided to just go random on suitemates. One of my concerns with this is that these two individuals won't fit my vibe or my roommate's. Also, these two people will have access to our room since they will share a bathroom with us. So I'm hoping they aren't the stealing type, haha. I won't find out who my suitemates are and which residential hall I will be staying in until mid-July. My university has two different residential halls where freshmen can be placed in. My roommate and I are really hoping we'll be assigned to Great Hall since First Hall isn't as nice (these are made-up names). The rooms & closets in Great Hall are larger, and the bathrooms are way nicer. Great Hall has four sinks per suite, whereas First Hall only has two. The toilet room in Great Hall is also bigger, and the shower has a door that you have to open to get to the shower. First Hall rooms' showers are just in the open. The closets in Great Hall also have sliding mirror doors, and First Hall closet doors are outdated wood doors. Great Hall is also closer to the majority of my classes. Well, enough about why I am in love with Great Hall.

I have not purchased anything for my dorm room yet; however, I have started making a list and saving links of things I want to buy. I have watched a lot of "what to bring to college" type of videos to make sure I don't forget anything. I am definitely mostly looking forward to decorating the dorm. I am not excited for the actual learning part of college.

Before I could schedule a Zoom meeting with my advisor to register for classes, I had to take math, Spanish, and chemistry placement exams. I ended up placing higher than most incoming students do for Spanish, so that was interesting (not that much higher, I don't want y'all thinking I'm gifted at Spanish). This meant there were three different Spanish classes I could take. However, by the time I scheduled my classes, there was only one Spanish class left. It was a Business Spanish class that ended at 6:30 P.M. The time was off-putting, and I wasn't too fond of taking a Spanish class related to business. Had I had my scheduling meeting earlier, I could have enrolled in Grammar or Oral Spanish and taken them at better times. So I decided to see if I could enroll in American Sign Language instead. I have always been interested in learning ASL, so I thought maybe this was a sign. The ASL teacher at my university is deaf, and I've heard that learning from a person who is deaf can be better than learning from a hearing person. My advisor told me that he had to request for me to take this class because the college doesn't allow just anyone to enroll in it. I was accepted into it! I'm hoping this was a smart move. I've taken Spanish for four years now, and I could have potentially received credit for the classes I tested out of. Another option I was considering was taking a different class the first semester that I was required to take anyway, and then taking Spanish during the spring semester. Unfortunately, there was no other required class that fit into my schedule. I think ASL will be fun though.

Currently, I am on the path to major in chemistry. However, after talking to my advisor, I am planning on changing my major to biochemistry once the semester begins. The classes I am taking during the fall semester would not change if I were to switch my major now rather than later. My fall classes are pretty general courses. Time-wise, my schedule honestly is not too awful. During the week, I only have classes for four of the days, and I am not enrolled in any 8 A.M. classes. Two days a week, my last class ends at 5 P.M, and on Fridays, I am done slightly after 3 P.M. On Tuesdays, my last class ends around 1 P.M.

Now time for a little life recap. A lot has happened since I wrote Sophomore Year, but I won't bore you with it all. First of all, I am legally an adult now. I will be turning nineteen before classes start in the fall. I am still with my boyfriend, Elijah. We started dating shortly after sophomore year ended. I was crowned Homecoming and Prom Princess my junior year, so that was fun. These are the classes I took junior year: AP Chem, AP Lang, Honors Pre-Calc, Prob & Stats, Math Lab (basically Trigonometry II), Spanish III, Economics, Nutrition & Wellness, and Housing & Interiors. These were my senior year classes: ACP Biology, ACP Calculus I, ACP Spanish IV, AP English Literature, Government, Anatomy, and Adult Roles. That is an extremely short recap, so if there's anything else you want to know about, let me know!

To read this book, you do not really have to read my previous editions. However, if you want to hear more information about my life, make sure to read Freshman Year and Sophomore Year.

Throughout my diary, I will refer to myself as Liliana, my pseudonym. For privacty reasons, I will also assign fake names to the other people and places I talk about. This is my journal for my first year of college, my freshman year.