HawkTalk
Cameron Haffner On campus The Freshman Experience

New (Stressful) Beginnings

Where are we? What are we doing here? And why? Now that we've got that existential tension out of our system, lets take a figurative step back and ease the chaos of our daily stressors. First off, let me introduce the little blond guy who's writing this thing. Meet Cameron Haffner. He's a new freshmen here at Wagner College and new resident to the lovely city of New York. He's a clueless young lad but is guided by the light of his passions and the art of filmmaking. Now that we've established who I am, perhaps we can address each other on a more personal level. So hello there, HawkTalk reader, and welcome to my very first post.

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Who is this blond guy?

As I stressed earlier, you may be stressing out just a little bit right now. Or perhaps, alot a bit. After the first two weeks of college, things may seem to tighten down on you. You have deadlines for assignments. You have professors whom aren't tolerant of any grammatical errors. All your classes seem like they're on the same day. It's unclear who is your friend and who isn't your friend. You only have time to check Facebook twice a day instead of five times a day. You're worried about how you're going to tip the pizza delivery guy when you have an empty wallet.

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The best tip of all: Ellen DeGeneres

Your school schedule may be getting in the way of your knitting schedule. You feel like your car insurance is getting more expensive every month (oh wait, that's just me). You're concerned as to if you really belong here at Wagner. You're homesick and miss your family. You may even question why you decided to go to college in the first place.

*takes deep breath*

Now, this is all quite overwhelming to deal with at this point in your life. You may feel a bit like Jack Shepard from Lost, trying to make sense of it all and attempting to get your life in order, on and off the Island. College is supposed to be a time of relaxation and meditation. However, any transition in your life is going to be overwhelming so it's important to give yourself time to adapt to your new lifestyle.

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Hang in there, Jack

"But Cameron, why should I listen to your dumb wisdom, you're just a freshmen and don't know jack about anything!" Why yes, fellow reader, I am just a confused newbie starting out at this lovely college and still have much to learn. But so is every other freshmen, future freshmen and new student to come. All I can offer is my thoughts and experiences along the college journey, dear reader. Nothing more. What's important is that we are all in this together (don't lie, you sang that line in your head). Whether we like it or not, all the freshmen will be spending the next four years together. This means we may all:

  • learn new things
  • join amazing clubs/groups/organizations
  • form great/terrible relationships with others
  • fail miserably and question our value
  • do something completely new and out of our comfort zone
  • network and make great connections
  • have regrets
  • live life in a completely new light

How do I know all of this might happen? Well quite blatantly, I don't. I'm just as clueless as you are in regards to what the future may hold. All I know is that we get the chance to be clueless together and experience all the pleasures and pains as they may come. So lets wander off into the unknown. Who knows, there might be pizza.