Hi Fleeters! By the time you are reading this orientation will have been completed. I decided to do this diary style and post how I felt, what happened, and what the experience was like to have a week long orientation. I think that I will definitely be doing a comparison orientation because this has been a whirlwind of a week!

Day One: Move-In…for other students.

I am so thankful that I live with my sister because I would have had to arrive to campus really early to check in and then move in all before 1:00 PM because the mass part of orientation for students and parents started then. I drove onto campus around 11:00 to check in and make sure that I was going to the correct place. I made it through every single table they had without having a nervous breakdown. Can I also mention that my mailbox is at the very top?! There is a step up that you can use but I still have to get on my tip-toes to see the numbers! AGH! Orientation went pretty well and all I had to do was sit and listen to people talk. I have never laughed so much at the speakers because they were at ease with us and filled our heads with information without making it so boring as going through slides. I can honestly say that I hadn’t been wiped out in a long time than I was that day because I slept at 9:30…that has been the earliest I have been asleep.

Day 2: Back-and-forth and all around!

So…I could have gone to something at 8:00 AM but it would have ended 5 minutes before the next thing I needed to go to. Since I didn’t know the location of the thing I needed to go to, I decided to skip the 8:00 AM session and Well, my schedule was really spaced out today because I went to an orientation for working on campus. I didn’t have anything else until 3:00 PM, so I just went back to my sister’s house and relaxed, ate, and took a nap. I knew that if I didn’t take a small nap that I would fall asleep real quick. I went back to campus around 2:00 and stayed until about 5:30. There was another event happening later that night but I decided to opt out because I didn’t want to go. I know that it is important to attend as many sessions as possible but I already felt wiped and it was raining really bad on this day which meant that I would be driving in the dark and in the rain…not cool.

Day 3: I actually talked to people…SURPRISE!

Well, this day started out really late, I went in around 3:30-4:00 PM to meet with all the other new students who were accepted into the same program. I am one of 26 who were accepted into my specific area. We all met with the faculty and I met a girl too who was very nice and we headed to the meet-and-greet after, food was involved! I also saw a girl who had interviewed at the same time as me and I met the person she was talking to as well. I am glad that they were nice enough to even be around me because I honestly went up to her and said, “Hi…” and then I blanked. I am awful at making friends or even putting myself out there so I tried and the three of us talked for the rest of the time.

Day 4: Check-in and a failed meet-and-greet.

Well, today was a day meant for checking in with the office to let the employees know that I was on campus and ready to get started with the school year. I also got a test for a respirator and various other things. I left after that and went home and relaxed until around 4:00 PM to go to a meet-and-greet in a really, really, hot room that made me want to cry. Others arrived and when someone finally spoke up, we all learned that there was supposed to be food and painting and other things. I bolted out of there and went home.

Day 5 and 6 were optional days for me because they were full of recreational things to do for all the schools to get together and relax, have fun.