New Beginnings

I would love to know how it is already the beginning of my second semester of college. 2013 flew by so incredibly fast I can’t even believe it. Somehow, I completed my first semester of college at the University of Pennsylvania. I am in complete and utter disbelief. Don’t get me wrong, a lot of work, sleepless nights, and several tears went into the past semester, with a healthy dose of laughter, coffee, procrastination, and good friends.

I feel like the most blessed and lucky person in the world. For the opportunity to go to Penn, for the ability to learn all that I do on a daily basis, for the people I’ve met, and for the new place I now call “home.” I honestly didn’t expect to like Penn as much as I do. When imagining life at school, I pictured hours of studying at the library and sitting in class. What I didn’t really think about it the time spent between those hours. There definitely is a lot of time spent studying with my course-load, but it’s the other time spent that makes the experience what it is. It’s really hard to sum up my last three months in one post, but I’ll do it the best way we know how on Minding the Gap – through the lens.

I believe that the people I’ve met at Penn have made all the difference to me and are what make me love Penn so much. I am very lucky to live in the dorm that I do because it is a very tight-knit community. My floor is all freshmen (co-ed) and we are all really close. We live together, some of us go to class together, we go out together, and we eat meals together. We are quite inseparable, but it is the ideal freshman housing experience. Our RA and GA (Graduate Student that lives on our floor) do a great job of organizing events to get us together from weekly movie night, to river walks, to dessert at Max Brenner, to apple picking, ice skating, and other various fun excursions. We have them to thank for bringing us together as a group!

The BEST floor mates I could have asked for!

While my closest friends live on my floor, I’m lucky to be a part of another amazing community at Penn – Nursing! (Also known as my major…!). We’re a small group (all 92 of us!) in a large university of over 10,000 students, and I’m lucky to have gotten to know quite a few of them at this point, and am at least able to recognize every freshman nurse, if not name them. We have a reputation of being some of the nicest students at Penn, and I definitely agree that my nursing classmates are some of the sweetest, nicest, friendliest, and kindest students and people that I’ve met. Since we’re such a small class, we take all of our courses together for the next four years, so I will get to know everyone really well. I think that having this small community within the big university also makes a huge difference to me. And, one of my best friends that lives on my floor also is a nursing student, so we see a lot of each other that way as well!

With Penn’s Dean of Nursing!

This first semester of nursing classes has really solidified the fact that I do really want to be a nurse. As hard as some of my classes are, I really love the material we learn, and I’m interested in all of it. I love everything about the nursing school – the community, the professors, the size, the opportunities, and the classes. Besides being a profession that I believe suits me wholeheartedly, it is a practical profession with promises of a reliable job when I’m done. I’ve already been sporting my Penn Nursing scrubs around campus and can’t wait to start practicing!

 

At the end of the day, it is easy to complain about the 55 page writing portfolio, the cumulative biology final worth 40% of my grade, or the fact that I stayed up studying until 6:30 am and only squeaked in two hours of sleep. But if I learned anything from our year abroad it was to be grateful. When I find myself feeling overwhelmed, or stressed, or exhausted, I think back to one of the scenes that sticks in my mind the most: When we were in Zambia volunteering building mud huts, two of the young men that worked for the organization hosted class every afternoon out on a picnic table for local students. While the lessons were often simple, there would still be a big crowd of kids sitting around the table eagerly listening and learning as much as they could. I know they would do a lot to have the opportunity that I have now to get an education. So, when I have those moments of feeling overwhelmed, stress, or negativity, I picture their eager faces and it makes the work that much more manageable.

I think what makes my time at Penn most controllable is time management. While I am by no means the most organized, productive, and non-distracted person, I try my best to manage my time well. Doing so has given me the ability to save time for things that I love – piano, running, baking, and most importantly, friends. As my semester came to a close, as strange as it sounds, I really tried to savor finals week. I often found myself surrounded by people wishing it away, and even though I dislike taking tests as much as the next person, I enjoyed the last few days of studying and time with friends before we all went our separate ways for the holidays.

Officially Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra season ticket holders… Officially nerds.

Starstruck by Penn’s President Amy Gutmann!

First snow of the year!

 

Future Roommates!

I thoroughly enjoyed my three week break catching up with friends at home, sleeping more than four hours at a time (what a luxury!), spending way too much time watching TV shows on Netflix, and working my favorite part time jobs. I missed school much more than I expected, but was able to stay in touch with my floor mates in the typical 21^st century fashion: video chats, texting, FaceTime, SnapChat, Facebook, Instagram, and every other social media outlet imaginable. What I’ve learned in the past couple years is that saying goodbye is not easy. I never realized how big a part of my life goodbyes would become. Just like saying goodbye before leaving for our gap year, or saying goodbye for college, it was also hard to say goodbye to friends at school before coming home, and friends at home before going back. What was different this time was the fact that the goodbye to my friends at school was “just for now.” When travelling, Jane and I met so many awesome people that we got to know quite well, but saying goodbye was always more sad because we knew the chances of us seeing each other again were very slim. When I left for winter break, the goodbyes were almost as sad, but at least I knew I would see them all again in a few short weeks, and that many of these friends will be close friends for the rest of my time in college, and even lifelong friends. This goodbye was bittersweet – saying goodbye to home and to my close family and friends (ahem, Jane..), but saying hello to an exciting new semester of classes, to my home away from home, and most importantly to the people that make Penn what it is for me.

-Gretchen