(Belated) First Day Advice
As I shuffled into Furman 114, a classroom that was going to become a holding tank for 150 students during the next hour, I was both eager and uncertain. I ruminated over the fact that where I decided to sit in this very moment would set the precedent for not only every other class period for this course during the semester, but also the tone for the type of person people were going to recognize me as. It was my first day of classes at Vanderbilt. Like any transfer student will tell you, I desperately wanted this new school journey to achieve better outcomes than the first.
In this moment of courage, I sat next to a girl who looked friendly welcoming and simply introduced myself. “Hi! I’m Hannah, and I’m new here,” I divulged. At first, she seemed a little shock at my boldness – and also a little shaken at my cheerfulness at 8:45 in the morning. However, we then started chatting normally. Our names were similar. We were both from the Northeast. She was planning on becoming a nurse, too. To top it all off, I was surprised to learn she had been in the same shoes as me as a transfer student the year before.
For any new student or anyone who just wants to take the plunge into a new friendship – sit next to someone random on the first day of classes. It only takes ten seconds of vulnerability, and he or she may just turn out to be a wonderful study buddy, mentor, and like my friend Holly, a lifelong friend.