Year-End Freshman Reflections

contributed by Alex Litofsky '12, civil engineering major from Columbia, MO

Whoosh!  The year whirled to a stop as frantically as it had begun back in August.  Classes wound down with that one-last-test that each professor managed to squeeze in, and then finals preparation loomed nearer.

While we were wrapping up all our class work, we also found a way to fit in some fun.  The weather granted us a beautiful day to enjoy Springfest, a campus event in which every organization can host a booth and provide games and prizes— snow cones, water guns, mini golf, and fencing all added to the mix.  I helped run the booth for the Student Sustainability Council; participants answered sustainability trivia questions and threw aluminum cans into recycling bins to win buttons, Frisbees, and shot glasses, which were the hottest items there, in my humble opinion.

Then it was time to study for finals, at least for as long as our rapidly diminishing attention spans could tolerate.  We had a few opportunities to get away from the books and release some pent-up energy during the weekend.  We got down on the dance floor at the Spartan Spirit formal (except for those of us who instead agonized over the Bulls’ game seven).  Then it was back to studying for those few remaining finals.

All exams completed, we celebrated with a journey to the beach for a quick dip in Lake Erie—where quick means dive in, lose feeling in your legs, and run back out onto the sand, all in the space of thirty seconds.  We also found some other ways to enjoy spring in Cleveland, now that the stresses of courses had at last disappeared: going for a bike ride, strolling through the Botanical Gardens, dancing at the Girl Talk concert.

Then, the dawning realization that the stuff strewn around our dorm rooms somehow needed to find its way into vehicles or storage led to the exhilarating process of packing.  As I stripped my sweaters off of hangers and folded my jeans into suitcases, I marveled at how quickly the year had passed.

Though I could see vividly that day in August when my roommate and I cheerfully opened our boxes, hung up our clothes, and rearranged our furniture, that first day at school seemed almost a lifetime ago.  The first week of two-a-day practices and feeling lost on campus seems so distant now that we have lived here for essentially the last nine months.  My uncertainties and fears of the first couple months of school have faded as I have settled into routines, become familiar with the place, and found that I can trust the friends that I have made here.

Though there were nights when it seemed the semester would never end—as I sat staring at the first two sentences of an eight-page paper, perhaps, or drowning in an impossible calculus problem—and some weeks seemed to last forever, in the end, the year fairly flew by.  Certainly, the first semester was over before I knew it.  I was stunned as each month passed, and by the time I had grasped that soccer season had ended, it was Thanksgiving and finals and home for winter break.  But the second semester slipped away even faster than the first, thanks to the flurry of activities exploding in the vacuum that daily soccer practices had left behind.

Having survived—and enjoyed—the first year of college, I feel well-prepared and enthusiastic to take on the second year.  That edge of confidence and familiarity will help me step up my play on the soccer field and take even better advantage of opportunities at school, particularly those extracurricular and social opportunities that must be balanced around schoolwork.  I just have to make sure not to over-commit myself!

There is a lot to look forward to next semester.  I’m excited to see the friends I’ll be missing all summer, and will get my first taste of classes specific to civil engineering, my recently-declared major.  I am certainly looking forward to the upcoming fall soccer season.  The season will bring a new set of freshmen, a new opportunity to train as a team, another shot at UAA games, and new cities to travel to (including St. Louis, in my home state).  I get excited just thinking about all of it!  And then I remember the summer workouts I have to do: ugh.  But then I remind myself that it’s all part of the deal: if we all come into the season in good shape, we’ll be that much more prepared to play.  And I definitely want to be prepared to play.

See you in August, Case!  I’ll be ready.

Pictures:  

Top:  Freshmen (L to R) Alex Litofsky, Jackie Guttman, Laura Gabster, Becca Vaughan, and Sammy Sarrett get ready to attend the first annual Spartan Student-Athlete Formal sponsored by CASA (Case Association of Student-Athletes)

Bottom:  Freshmen Kristina Vaci, Anna Selser, Sammy Sarrett, and Anna Kennedy enjoy the activities during SpringFest Weekend.