Annaliese
I graduated high school with some pretty grand goals. I was going to join as many clubs and groups as possible, explore the city to my heart's content, and get as much camera experience (being a VMA) as possible. In retrospect, I did a pretty dismal job of accomplishing these goals. I’ve only participated in one club during the first semester, and a grand total of none during the second. I spend my weekends in bed watching Netflix, and have been on a total of four shoots this entire year. However, the year was far from bad. I made the Dean’s List in the fall semester. I’m taking classes that I actually enjoy, and the friends that I have made here are some of the kindest, most interesting people I know.
In preparation for college, I read up on all the little “Tips & Tricks” on Facebook about how to handle college life. There were a lot of advice columns that I scoffed at then, but now I’m realizing just how true they actually were. If I were to look back on my freshman year, I’d give myself three pieces of advice.
The first would be to “be unapologetically yourself.” When I discovered just how shy of a person I was outside my comfort zone, I caved inwards. Not even during the second day of Orientation, I stopped trying to approach other people. What I didn’t realize until much later was that by not putting myself out there, I was making myself into much less desirable friend material. The first, and best, friend I made here at Emerson was made by me approaching him first. By projecting my natural personality, I managed to find more people like me.
My second piece of advice to myself would be this: “Your roommates don’t have to be your best friends.” This is kind of a tricky one. I know lots of people here whose roommates are their best friends. I also know people whose roommates are their worst enemies. I know people who barely talk to their roommates at all. If you are lucky enough to be rooming with someone whose company you enjoy, just remember this: you’re going to see each other every day. You share your space, your floor, the light and heat that you use. Be aware of the fact that sharing every detail of your personal life, and expecting that person to always be there for you, could be sharing too much. Keep the necessary boundaries up in order to stay happy, but enjoy the company.
My last piece of advice would be to “take some leaps.” The main reason I didn’t join as many shoots as I had hoped was because my fear of being looked down on in a setting that was new to me overcame the desire I had to immerse myself in filming activities. I was approaching these positions with the idea that if I didn’t know everything there was to know about cameras, I wouldn’t be any use on a shoot. And in some cases, that is admittedly true. However, there are still tons of shoots that don’t require experience and that have people willing to teach newcomers, especially on the Emerson Channel. Even if it feels like you’re too inexperienced to do the things you’re interested in, there’s always someone willing to teach you.
College takes a lot of effort; both in terms of classes and socially. What I came to recognize, though, is that when you’re studying for something that you actually love, it becomes actual fun, not work. If I could go back and change things about this first year, would I? Oh definitely. But do I regret the majority of my time spent here? Not at all.