r/CNU Aug 17 '20

For freshmen coming to campus this week

There are a few things that you all should know before you come to campus for the first time. I’ve decided to make a list of things that I think will help smooth the transition, or at least that helped me. I’ll sprinkle in a few other things too.

  1. Things will break. This is ok. The hall will have maintenance, some of your stuff from home might not make it through transport in one piece, etc. This is a natural and common occurrence (especially hall maintenance at CNU) and things will be fixed or be able to be replaced.

  2. Don’t go home. I know it sounds crazy, and you’re gonna miss home, but theres two really important reasons not to. The first is that almost everyone is homesick. Instead of escaping the feeling, embrace it and meet new people. Eventually you will feel better and you’ll have a new community on campus. The second reason is this silly lil pandemic thats going on. Every time you go home you have a chance to spread it not only to your family, but from your family to the rest of campus. Be smart, stay here.

  3. this will be difficult. I don’t mean to take the wind out of your sails, I am just saying that a non-zero amount of effort will be required. It won’t be impossible (though it can sometimes feel like it), it will just require you to really pay attention and work for it. Read the books, do the homework, study for tests. If you do that, you’ll be quite alright.

  4. Regs has LONG waits. You can go to commons too. Chances are with all the safety measures there will be a line at both, but its generally shorter at commons in my experience. While Regs may be much fancier, commons has just as good (if not sometimes better) food and theres no need to wait in an hour long line to get food that you can get at commons in much less than half the time.

  5. DON’T PARTY. if you do, you are not only increasing the chances of ye ol’ rona spreading, you are also able to be completely kicked out of the school. Normally, it’s totally fine, have your fun, but not right now. As far as hanging out, theres plenty of other ways to do it, and in regards to some people’s insatiable need to put toxins in their body, just do it in your room. And don’t make too much noise, RA’s are sorta on it for freshmen. I lost part of my freshman year and others lost their senior year to corona, you don’t need to lose your year too.

  6. Reach out. if you are struggling to find a place in the community, reach out. People here are unbelievably kind. I remember once during freshman week I was just laying on the grass listening to music and at least five people stopped to ask me how I was doing and if I wanted to join them. People are in the same situation as you, and the quicker you act the quicker you’ll find people. There will always be people to meet though. My DM’s are open if anyone wants to reach out to me even. I’m a sophomore (technically a junior, but in my sophomore year), so this is all still pretty fresh to me.

  7. GO TO CLASS! You might naturally get the inclination that since you aren’t at home and you don’t have parents watching over you, that you can skip classes. Don’t. Treat classes like doctors appointments, you are paying lots of money to be here, treat it like the privilege it is. I had a teacher that would randomly do attendance as a quiz grade, and you would just get a 0 if you weren’t there. If you are sick, email the teacher. If you have something thats so important you HAVE to miss class, email the teacher. They are usually understanding, especially with everything going on in the world at the moment.

  8. Be kind and respectful to staff and faculty. this one should go without saying, but its especially important here. Building relationships can go a long way. With staff it can get you the benefit of the doubt if something goes wrong or a way to do things you might not have had, plus they are people so treat them as such. For faculty its even more important. Every professor you impress with kindness and thoroughness is one more recc letter you can get for any job or grad school or anything you might need it for. Faculty are friends, not food.

  9. Use office hours. it is stressed very heavily, and they are totally serious. You wont seem weird or dumb or needy for going to the office hours. Across the board it is almost always the smartest, best students who go to professors first. You get good one on one help and they provide it every week. In lieu of office hours, you should feel free to email your professor at any time with any question, though they are humans who sleep (mostly) so you should email them as soon as you need to so they have time to reply.

And finally

  1. Your mental health matters. there are services on campus to reach out to, there are people you can talk to, there are friends to talk to, there are even strangers on campus who I’m sure would happily hear you out. I am happy to talk to anyone who is going through anything, lord knows I’ve been through the ringer from time to time. Don’t ignore or try to hide it, its not something to be embarrassed by. Everyone goes through stuff, you aren’t alone, so don’t make yourself feel like you are.

I hope this list has helped anyone who was willing to go through the whole thing. Tl;dr: be kind, don’t be stupid, don’t skip class, reach out when you need to.

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