First Few Weeks In Ireland: Freshman Feeling

In my short time being abroad this semester, I have noticed a certain feeling that I had once felt before. I do not have any other way to describe it other than a “Freshman Feeling”. Much like arriving on the Ohio State campus as a student for the first time in the fall of my freshman year, I had a mix of emotions. These included nervousness, fear, motivation, confusion, and excitement. After identifying this feeling again, I started seeing the connections in the situations I was, and am in.

Obviously, I am attending a new school where I do not know anyone, and everyone is coming from different backgrounds from me. I knew one or two people from my area in New York who attended Ohio State, but no one that I could really rely on to show me the ins and outs of the school. Similarly, I was traveling to Trinity College in Ireland where almost all the students are from a completely different country. This aspect definitely creates some nervousness and fear, which is completely understandable. However, it also was exciting to be able to meet new people my age and learn about how other cultures operate in their day to day lives. After the initial nervous butterflies had worn off, the excitement was a much stronger feeling.

Speaking of meeting people, this was another way I saw similarities to my freshman year at Ohio State. One thing that I enjoyed the most about OSU was all the ways that I was meeting new people and developing relationships. I thought that I was only going to come in contact with Irish people but the easiest way to talk to new people has been if they’re from another country than Ireland, especially America. It seems very ironic to go all the way across the Atlantic Ocean to meet Americans, but we are all sharing a common experience which is a very easy thing to talk about. Just like meeting people at Ohio State who were from New York, it is very fun to meet people who live near where I’m from, in this case, America.

I have also met people from other countries who are also studying in Ireland. For example, the apartment complex that I am living in for the semester is made up of students from all over the world including Germany, France, India, and Hungary. Much like one of the dorms at OSU, I was placed with people from many different cultures and I learned to live together with them. It was easy to relate to everyone not from Ireland who I met. We were all coming from a different place and learning to adjust to our new home. I was able to make friends with the students I was living with was by having a dinner with everyone who was living in my housing block. It gave us a chance to get to know each other. 

Contrary to what I have previously been writing, I have met some Irish people who are my age. They have been awesome in showing me the best parts of Dublin and helping me immerse myself in the Irish culture. They are also as excited to learn about me and my culture as I am theirs. This really reminded me of some of the conversations I was having my freshman year of college as well.

Aside from the aspect of meeting tons of new people, coming to Trinity reminds me of my experiences at Ohio State through the idea of living on my own and figuring everything out for myself. After I was dropped off at OSU and I was unpacked in my room, I got the conflicting feelings of relief and fear that I was on my own. For the first time I had to do things like make my own schedule, decide what to do with free time, and remember to eat at some point in the day. It was nice to have my personal space but it was also a terrifying amount of responsibility. After three years at Ohio State, I got into a good grove of how life at school was conducted. However, coming to a new campus with a different schedule and new classes was challenging again. I needed to make sure I attended all of the orientations and to do the necessary actions to schedule my classes and no one was going to force me to do that. I needed to really think about what needed to be done even just to verify that I was studying at the school, not to mention finding my way to classes.

I have found that the classes are slightly tougher here and the professors are more strict when it comes to grading than at Ohio State. The way class and assignments are set up at Trinity are completely different so I've needed to adjust. I ask a lot of questions to my professors about class structure and I try my best to stay organized. One tip I strongly recommend is using a calendar to list out when all of your assignments are due so you can see when you have something coming up. There are only one or two assignments that make up the entire grade for a class so staying on top of things is very important.  

Even with the two schools being thousands of miles apart in very different parts of the world, I have noticed these similarities between how I have felt when attending them for the first time. It is apparent to me now that attending a new school for the first time will bring about these same feelings no matter where, or even how old I am.