After finishing my orientation just a few hours ago, I’ve officially meant to be prepared for college life. Two days of lectures from the president of DCU and the SU, to the lecturers I’ll have to avoid excuses to, followed by two further days of group activities through the business school, making paper towers and designing an imaginary soft drink, even winning a twenty euro one4all voucher for having the best business plan, which I might add was mainly influenced by yours truly, without being too cocky about it.
However, I don’t know if it’s just my high expectations or what not, but I don’t feel as if I’ve fully integrated into DCU life yet or my class. It might be because I’m seeing the vast majority of my school head the other way to Maynooth, a much closer university while I only see the odd person from my school every day so far, counting about seven by the end. I even saw someone who knew me yet I honestly did not have any notion about who they were, despite their pleas of being friends for a while, which I did have to apologise profusely for my failure in knowledge.
Indeed too, many of the new group also happen to be in cohorts of people who knew each other, which I had feared. While a few made attempts to welcome the more reluctant individuals, such as myself included, this unfortunately was a trait not shared by all, but I’ll give the benefit of the doubt, as naturally people who know other people longer will want to stick in their groups, maybe even seeing new people as a threat that could harm the group, but that’s likely my overreaction.
Also the clubs and societies being quiet for at least another two weeks is pretty inconvenient. I’m aware that there’s the sign up fest coming up at the start of October, and they’d want all students to join, but if they quickly realised the young ones are the most gullible to joining, they’d be all over like a rash. That is true to some extent, with Enactus and the Enterprise society entertaining my class a grand total of eight times over three days, with their presence becoming more annoying and confusing each time, yet gaining so many signatures they had no sign up spaces on their multiple sheets left.
And the supposed BEST programme, and coincidence of its name rather than the vanity of the business school, did little to ease those fears too, as they somehow sandwiched my class with the language schools despite having no correlation to the school as intercultural studies. Surely, the political school would’ve been a better option, but I’m not the one running the courses and I must say, the incentive of free pizza was likely the only way most people stayed for the two days, as the icebreakers became quickly outdated and way too business focused to make it enjoyable for myself or anyone not doing business, which was the vast majority.
Not even to mention, the already dreaded college timetable. While mine is less intensive than others in terms of class hours, many people I’ve talked to seem to be having sleeping problems, lack of support from lecturers and overall un-enthusiasm about their college life, which supposedly is meant to be the three greatest years of your life according to staff, yet seemingly a nightmare according to already started fresher’s.
Maybe it’s just me going loco, or afraid of the unknown, but to anyone who has started college or starting soon, get the support from your peers and staff. The support is there for a reason, and as Monty Python has taught me, always look on the bright side of life!
-Ross Boyd, lead writer
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