Dispelling Myths

This past Friday, I had my sister Natasha and my cousin Meredith (a senior and a junior in high school respectively) out to spend the night with me at Clark. Both of them are considering Clark in their college search process, my sister more seriously than my cousin. I think my cousin is mainly enamoured with the idea of being in college, not necessarily Clark in particular.

I showed them around my room. We then ate dinner in the caf. Meredith was so impressed with the food that she said she preferred it to her mother's cooking which I think earned her a couple of strange glances from some Clarkies. As we digested, I gave them the grand tour, showing them the gym, the Academic Commons, the Bistro, and red square. I also took them into Wright Hall, the biggest of the first-year residence halls. I wanted them to have an idea of what a first-year room/hall looked like in comparison to my rather spacious and atypical House Resident Adviser single. From there, the three of us walked down Park Ave. to YoWay, a self-serve frozen yogurt shop dangerously close to campus. They each filled their bowls to the brim and consumed more fro-yo than necessary. We wandered back to my house, and I decided to take them over to meet my friend Maisha who was on-duty in Blackstone. We did a few rounds with her, and they got to see me do a little bit of my RA job. Afterwards, we left Blackstone and spent the rest of the night chatting.

Being honest, they are a lot more proactive than I was in my college search process. I don't mean that I did not think about college and start looking into things as early as they did. What I am really referring to is visiting schools. I did not officially tour any of the schools to which I applied; I only visited one of them before receiving decision emails and letters. That is something that I do regret now, but I know I really could not have changed. (My family could not afford to take me to see schools.) Taking a tour or spending an over-night allows prospective students to get a little taste of what campus life is about and to sense the culture of a school; it additionally helps to dispel a few myths that prospectives have heard about college life. I will leave you with a few myths I hope that I helped to clear away for Natasha and Meredith.

• College food is bad. It is normally pretty good, and it can be healthy if you make the right choices.
• The freshman fifteen... I will tell you right now that this is completely untrue. There are as many people who come to school and lose weight as who come to school and gain weight. I personally have lost 60 pounds since leaving high school and my habits at Clark are in part to thank for that. Again, it is all about making the right choices.
• My college roommate and I will be best friends. This seems to be a myth that comes from popular culture. Although some people do end up being best friends with their roommate, other people do not, and that is okay. I lucked out my first year, and I loved my first-year roommate. Not everyone does though, and that doesn't mean you are abnormal or strange if you don't end up being best buds with your roomie in college.
• Now that I am in college, I don't need to do anything except pass my classes. This one is worst of them all. Getting involved is an integral part of the college experience. Try a bit of everything, and stick with the activities you enjoy!