Here's to Freshman Year

I've been home for about four days.  Not only am I home, but I'm home for the summer.  SUMMER?!  Wasn't I just going away to college, butterflies in my stomach as I set off for orientation.  My first year may have not gone exactly as I expected, but it was a journey that taught me so much, especially about myself.  For that reason, I'd like pose a thank you to my freshman year.  And also a thank you to my First West Regina family for teaching me so much about life, friendship, and myself.  There were hard times and times I felt alone, but I wouldn't change my first year for anything.

Move in day was one of the weirdest and more exciting days of my life.  I met a stranger who was to be my roommate for the year.  I put my things in to a room I had never seen before.  I was separating from my family, my home, and all I had known before this day.  I was taking a major step in my life.  I was growing up, changing, shifting the focus of my motivation to something bigger than myself.  Sure, I was coming here to study, but I was also joining a new community, a family of people I had never met before.

Orientation was a blast.  My orientation leaders were kind, supportive, and excited to have us as part of the college.  We volunteered, danced, laughed, and even shared some tears.  I will never forget the memories of orientation week, even though I have drifted apart from some of the friends I made there.  I am also so incredibly thankful for my college for making me feel so welcome in my first few days on campus.  It made the rocky weeks that came later so much more bearable.

So, here's to a freshman year full of adventure, new friends, new memories, and new fears.  Here's to the new routines, new skills, new goals, and new experiences.  Here's to the professors who made my days so much brighter by trying to get to know me, the awkward first encounters with the boys on my floor, and for the laughs shared with new faces, faces that would soon become a seemingly permanent fixture in my mind.  Here's to the seemingly impossible tests, late night study sessions, and endless amounts of caffeine you saw friends drink.

Here's to hockey games with my suitemate Alex, tea with my roomie, and watching Frozen with Erick.  Here's to learning how to ride the city bus, laundry that is unavoidable and costly, and developing a love for Sip, the organic juice bar.  Here's to the night when every Insignis Freshman's heart dropped when registration didn't work, to the guys above me for their random outbursts, and for heart to hearts with my roommate and suitemates while one of us was in the shower.  Here's to toilet paper runs, the success felt when mail is received, and the sadness felt when running out of stamps.  Here's to the beautiful care packages, frustrating fire drills, and the almost never-ending winter in Grand Rapids.

Here's to finding wonderful people in AQPB, to Moose chai lattes, to the campus squirrel population, and to interesting Wege meals.  Here's to giggling and running in the halls, to the best RA ever, and to the amazing Plain White T's/Parachute concert.  Here's to that power outage that canceled school, for all the snow days we did NOT have, and for being able to walk on the most beautiful campus.  Here's to the trees, to the birds, to the ducks who made that puddle their pond.  Here's to the mall escapades, to Wealthy Street Bakery cupcakes, to ICE improv, and the countless amazing plays where you undoubtly knew at least one person in the cast.

Here's to missing pets, obtaining a new appreciation for phone calls from your parents, and for staying in touch with best friends back home.  Here's to those awkward facetime calls when someone on your floor bursts in, to Disney scene-it night, and to trying to find the motivation to workout.  Here's to 144, my first dorm room, my first roommate, and just the beginning of my college journey.  Here's to my plans for next year.  Here's to everything that has happened this year to get me this far.  But before it's next year already, Here's to summer.  Here's to a much needed break from a first year full of joy, stress, fun, and friendship.  Freshman year truly was a great experience.  It has made me grateful for things I had always taken for granted.  But, most of all it has given me new people in my life, given me new life experiences, and has made me grow.  Nothing can ever compare to that.

So thank you to everyone who can recall the moments above, for all that have touched me heart, and even to those who have made me feel a little helpless and lonely.  Each experience has the potential for growth, whether good or bad.  It is hard to believe one year of school is over already.  But here's to three more great years, full of ups and downs, but most of all growth, change, and movement toward my goals.  Three more years of adventure, stress, and life-changing people.  Three years that I'm excited, nervous, and anxious for.  Graduation will come before we know it, so let's live it up class of 2017!  Let's never forget where we came from and who we are now.  And let's always remember our freshman year as one of so much new, but also many people who will hopefully still be around when we are old.  And for now, while we're enjoying our summer breaks, let's remember these new faces, and look back at the pictures of our journey so far.  It's a journey you should be proud of, just as I am.  Thank you freshman year and thank you to all the professors, faculty, and fellow students have touched my life.  To my incredibly supportive parents who have allowed me to embark on this wonderful journey.  It'll be a rollercoaster, but a worthwhile ride.

So here are some pictures recalling memories from freshman year, including mostly pictures from orientation, from events such as the orientation dance, project unite, and vegas night.  And from events a little later in the year, such as the Regina hall bike tour.