When entering college, students may have clear expectations for college and their future. But, as some students will find, by the time senior year arrives the experiences one has at Texas A&M University – Kingsville (TAMUK) may lead them to places they never imagined.
As a new school year begins students across campus are adjusting to the start of the semester. For freshmen, this marks their first year on campus. During this time, freshmen can be filled with nerves and excitement as they start their college career by learning how to navigate classes, new friendships and their first taste of independence.
While TAMUK does its hardest to create a smooth transition for high school students going into college, it is inevitable for freshmen to struggle with worry as they adjust to being on campus. For Jazmin Acosta, a chemical engineering major and a freshman on campus, the first week of college proved to be nerve-wracking. From finding the buildings where her classes were located to learning to live away from her family home, the week was filled with ups and downs as she familiarized herself with the TAMUK campus.
At the same time Acosta is adjusting to an unfamiliar location, she is also learning to share a living space with a roommate. Also, like many freshmen, Acosta is realizing the responsibility she has by living on her own. For example, she is now responsible for making sure items, such as toilet paper or shampoo, are in her living space.
“There’s a lot of things that I didn’t think I needed until we moved out, like the small things,” Acosta said.
Although new students are bound to feel nervous or unprepared at times during their first semester of college, one thing that can help students feel more comfortable is having friends who are experiencing similar emotions to walk alongside them. “Having friends on campus makes me feel less alone and anxious,” freshman Natalia Flores said. “All in all, knowing at least one person welcomes a sense of ease in me when trying new things.”
But, as time passes, these students will find their place on campus, try new things, and figure out and develop their passions. Eventually, senior year will arrive and the experiences one has at TAMUK will be different from when they first arrived on campus as freshmen. However, throughout the time it takes for one to reach their senior year, there can be unexpected twists and turns that can lead students to places they may have never expected for their life.
For Gilbert Pardon III, a communications major, his college career did not pan out the way he had envisioned when he first enrolled at TAMUK. Pardon is set to graduate in May 2019, but throughout his time at TAMUK, he has explored different majors before deciding on majoring in communications with a minor in psychology. In his experience, what he thought he wanted to go to college for shifted from his freshman to senior year.
“You think that..you have everything set, like what I want to be, what I want to do, but as you go and find yourself throughout college you slowly start to realize…what you don’t want to do for the rest of your life,” Pardon said.
But, before Pardon even decided what career field he was interested in, he was once a freshman trying to find his way around campus. Pardon remembers how nervous he felt for his first day of classes and how he studied his maps to ensure he would show up to the right
classes. However, as Pardon has spent more time at TAMUK, he feels “so much more comfortable,” Pardon said.
Along with finding his rhythm on campus, he has also discovered new passions and grown in ways as a person that he never expected when he first started attending TAMUK.
“I never would have thought I would be interested in this avenue [psychology], in this field, but definitely finding the passion for the love of learning that I have for these subjects I think really did push me towards a more academic mindset that I didn’t have my freshman year,” Pardon said.
Like Pardon, other students at TAMUK will enter college with one goal and mind and leave with one that is different. As students gain knowledge over the course of their time in college, it is expected for them to develop new interests as they better themselves. And, with each semester, the experiences students have from freshman year to senior year will change as they gain a better understanding of who they are, what their passions are, and what they want to do after they graduate.
