Reflections on College: Freshman Year

Well, all that I have left to do in my college career is turn in a sketch portfolio by noon tomorrow. It's crazy. The past four years flew by, yet arriving on campus for orientation in the fall of 2007 seems like so long ago. In order to properly reflect on each year, I will do a post for each grade level to try to keep the posts a reasonable length.

My first Red Sox game as a freshman.

I played junior hockey for year after my high school graduation in 2006, so when I arrived to Wentworth's campus in August 2007, I was less than a month from turning 20, which made me 18-24 months older than most of my classmates. Everything during orientation was so carefree and easy. Everybody was interested in making friends with everybody. I made two good friends, Dani and Renee, during my orientation. We bonded over an upcoming pizza delivery order while on a group scavenger hunt around the city. I also had strep throat pretty bad during orientation, so I wasn't super talkative or active, but pizza sounded good that night. Dani, Renee, and I became good friends and we do still talk today.

Time goes on, and work picks up a little bit. It's funny to me now, that as freshman in architecture we complained about the amount of work we had, when really it was only one hand drawing and one physical model to make in a week. By senior year, we could bang out that much work in a few hours.

In one of those classic college stories, I met a girl early on (actually, our first date was lunch for my 20th birthday), and we dated. After a month, we were one of this official couples, but everything was light, carefree, and fun. Just like the rest of college.

Our game vs. Salve Regina my freshman year.

I also remember vividly the day of my first lacrosse game in March 2008. I was pretty nervous, so it's a good thing we had an away game, which gave me time on a bus to help kill part of the day. Not only was it my first college game ever, but the first game I'd played in nearly two years. I was in the starting line-up that day and pretty excited. We lost to nationally ranked Endicott College 22-5, but I did score two goals. The next day we boarded a plane for Florida, and our team's spring break trip. That was the only year we took a trip, but it was a blast. It will always rank as one of the most fun weeks of my life. Playing lacrosse definitely forged some long-lasting friendships. As I'm about to graduate, most of the people I talk to on a regular basis are also my teammates. I'm pretty confident in saying that the guys that will be my groomsmen when I get married (in several years), will be the guys who wore the same uniform as me from 2008-2011.

That summer I returned home to northern Indiana. It was amazing how many people I had fallen out of contact with back home after spending my last two falls, springs, and winters in New England. I got a job at Aeropostale (miserable), and at the Notre Dame ice rink (also miserable), and made a little money. Mostly, I was eager to return to Boston, see my friends, and take on another year of architecture.