Today’s Tour: First Timers!
I’m giving Saturday 11AM tours this semester, which is not ideal because Saturdays are supposed to be for sleeping in and then ~maybe~ some productivity and a tour is a whole chunk of the morning. BUT there are so many positives. First, 11AM really isn’t that early. Of course, you can’t just roll out of bed and show up; you gotta look cute and put on makeup and do hair etc. to give off the best impression you can! Second, I love giving a tour while the whole campus is waking up. It starts out pretty quiet and peaceful so the families can notice the inherent beauty that is our campus. Then as the tour goes on, students slowly start to appear doing Saturday morning errands or going to eat or to the library, it’s just a cool thing to be aware of.
And today, what was really cool was that it was a small tour and for both families (there were only 2! Sometimes I’ll have like 8 or 9!), it was the first college tour for their child. They waited until the end of the tour to tell me this, but what was really special was that they both said I helped their kids feel more relaxed and excited about the whole college tour thing. I loved that! And I loved seeing them become less and less nervous, which one of the moms pointed out to me about her own daughter. It was nice to know that I had been a part of the start of this really exciting journey for them, and that it had been Vanderbilt at the start for them too. Giving tours is definitely one of my favorite things to do on campus, and today was one of those days that reminded me why! :)