Over the weekend my parents and I traveled to Kansas City for my college orientation. Since it’s about a three-and-a-half hour drive from Saint Louis and orientation started at 8 AM, we left the night before and stayed at a hotel.
A family friend works at a Sheraton hotel, and to put it simply, they are very nice. Their rooms at the cheapest are usually around $130, which is a lot higher than my family’s budget. As you all know, I work at a Holiday Inn, which are not bad hotels, they’re just nothing fancy. So anyhow, this friend let us use her discount and we stayed at a Sheraton.
Maybe it’s me, but it was almost too fancy. The place was so big that we couldn’t even find the lobby to check-in when we were entering from the parking garage. It was ridiculous. One of the employees was walking by and must have realized that we were totally clueless and took pity on us. He directed us to go down an elevator, get off and then get on another elevator to go back up one. :x
Uhm, yeah.
I think I’d prefer the slightly smaller rooms and beds to the ones with the chandeliers because at least I can find them.
Orientation itself was alright. It was a lot of being talked at about things we’re going to experience and find out ourselves. We didn’t even get to speak to our advisers for classes until around 1 PM. But that’s just me being impatient.
When I had applied at UMKC, I had declared myself a French major. Since then, I’ve somewhat thought about it and don’t think that that is the direction I want to go – although I’ve no idea which direction I would like to go. So my adviser was a French professor and she was very kind and helpful. She suggested that for now, I stay with my French major and try out some classes and go from there. She told me it was easy to switch majors and that if I wanted to minor in French, that would be easy, too.
Since I had taken four years of French in high school, she put me in third semester French (two years of French in high school = 1 semester in college, apparently). I had scored a 3 on the AP English Exam and took Writing Workshop as duel credit so I was able to skip out on the first semester Englihs class. She was also impressed that I scored a 33 in the English section on my ACT (a pretty high score, out of 36) so suggested that I enroll in the Honors English class.
Which is when I started getting nervous.
Yes, I had taken honors courses all throughout high school so that they would prepare me for classes in college. Yes, I’m fairly confident that I’m a strong writer. No, I am not enrolled in the Honors program. I don’t have a clue whether or not I’m prepared for a second semester Honors English class or 3rd semester French. 
She encouraged me to sign up all my classes as Honors, but I declined. I think I’d like to try just the regular classes first and the one Honors English. Then I could compare and decide whether or not the Honors program is right for me. So for my first semester I will be taking Arts & Science 100, French 211, English H225, and Psychology 210.
It’ll be nice not having class on the weekends, super late at night, or really early in the morning. So I’m really happy with the schedule that I have. 
I think what I’m most worried about this fall when I head off to college is making friends. Around people I know, I can loosen up and just be myself. But when I’m around people I don’t know, I kind of clam up. I smile and laugh, but I don’t know how to jump into the conversation or know what to say. I guess what I’m saying is I’m scared everyone else is going to hit it off right away and I’ll be that awkward person by herself. And end up with a creepy roommate. :blink: (Apparently the residential assignments were posted online at the website, but whenever I go to see mine the page doesn’t load. :()
On a completely different note, I finally finished A Clash of Kings in the A Song of Ice and Fire series. Only took a month, but these books are insane! Anyone else reading/read them?
Aww, you will have no trouble making friends! You’re sweet, lovely and have a beautiful smile.
Plus you know I’ll be “with you in spirit” and always keep you company via Twitter! 
Being clueless completely shows on my face! A bus driver once asked me if I was okay because, in his words, I looked like a scared little rabbit – I had NO idea where I was. ;__;
Firstly…this might be late…but I love your new layout!
Ahh Sheratons are nice indeed…I know what you mean by the Holiday Inn vs Sheraton comparison. Your friend is really nice to let you guys use her discount
Lol hmm nah you are right…some of them can be too fancy. But then again they charge you for the fanciness…once in a while it feels good to be treated like royalty um minus the getting lost part hehe.
I guess you can get impatient with orientations…sometimes they talk too much -_-
Advisors are nice…mine helped me out quite a bit and I hope you can figure out your major and stuff! Hmm I sort of understand the concept with honors but since I did part of my education in an entirely different system it is kinda hard for me to catch up xD. Nevertheless I think it is a smart move to compare your classes and find out if you want to do regular or honor classes.
Personally I didn’t mind late evening classes but absolutely despised the early morning ones T_T
Hmm I think you will be just fine with making new friends…that is what I miss most about being in school or coll…you have soo many people your age group around that it is very easy to make friends! Haha I hope you don’t end up with a creepy roommate…good luck!
I am not reading the books yet but finally caught up with the TV show…once I finish my current book I will jump onto the series!
Congrats on college btw! Most people don’t realize how big of an accomplishment it is to graduate from high school.
I agree with you. There are some hotels that are just too fancy. My grandmother stays at the four seasons every time she visits in Philadelphia is its crazy! Some things you can really live without, you know?!
I think it was quite realistic and smart of you to not do all honors classes. Save yourself the stress because you’ll have plenty of time for it but being offered them is impressive! So, take that news and kick butt in your scheduled classes! You’ll do great!
Travelling 3.5 hours for a college isn’t too bad. At least you have some perks of knowing people personally who works at a hotel for discounts :). I definitely hoped you took pictures of the hotel or something! But from what I see from the Sheraton hotel in Los Angeles, it looks really nice :)!
Declaring yourself as a french major sounds like something you can pursue without a problem with your devotion and knowledge of it. I’m sure you will skip through without a problem. With you scoring a 33 in the ACT English, you’re awesome! I scored a 26 on the English portion. .___.”!
Your schedule looks really packed with classes every day! At least it’s not as intense as an average 8-hour day school. At least I’m glad you’re happy with your schedule. Making friends sounds hard, but it’s not really hard when you’re in college with people who share the same interests as you! I hope you’ll have an awesome roommate ;)!
I haven’t really kept up with reading books. I don’t have enough time set aside for reading :/.
Take care:)!
You’ve had to go to school on the weekends in the past? That really sucks! Having a good schedule makes school so much more fun.
Don’t worry about the friends thing. You are going to make friends whether you try to or not. Especially if they make you do group assignments. You’ll have a great time!
I had the same worries & fears when I first started college, too. Don’t worry! You are going to absolutely love it. Plus, your classes sounds amazing! I think it’ll be a very inspiring & interesting semester for you.
Good luck & have fun! Join study groups — they are very important in college. Not only to help improve grades but to meet new people as well.
No worries Becca, you are a wonderful person, and you’ll make lots of friends! Heck, I’m jealous of your future friends, they get to meet you in person! hehe
IMO you did the smart thing by not jumping straight into honors. Honors in college is just so much more demanding than honors in high school. Even if you’re a genius, sometimes it’s better to just go with the flow for once right? Any college class is demanding, honors or not. So just test it out before you go all out with honors.