{"id":5195,"date":"2022-02-28T13:19:20","date_gmt":"2022-02-28T18:19:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/inside-rec\/?p=5195"},"modified":"2022-02-28T13:19:20","modified_gmt":"2022-02-28T18:19:20","slug":"things-i-learned-as-a-freshmore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/inside-rec\/2022\/02\/28\/things-i-learned-as-a-freshmore\/","title":{"rendered":"Things I Learned as a ‘Freshmore’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Listen to a reading of the Things I Learned as a ‘Freshmore’ blog<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The class of 2024 certainly did not have a normal freshman year experience. After our senior year of high school got ruined by the original COVID breakout, we were forced into online school for our first year. Due to this, campus was a completely different place, making this year our first \u201creal\u201d year of school at the University of Rhode Island. There are a lot of things that I didn\u2019t realize about URI after my first year that had me really confused and shocked when I came back in fall \u201821. Today, I\u2019m going to be counting them down.<\/span><\/p>\n

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  1. \n

    Hope\/Mainfare Has a Lot of Options <\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    For those of you who don\u2019t know, during the 2020-21 school year, Hope\/Mainfare dining hall\u2019s only option was Astro\u2019s, the burger, fries and hot dog joint when you first walk in. This year, I was fascinated when I walked into Hope for the first time and saw all of the different stations that are available to students. In addition, I didn\u2019t realize that the stations were self-serve. Last year, the staff at the dining halls had to put your food on your plate for you, similar to a high school cafeteria. Walking in and being able to scoop my own food onto my plate was a strange experience for me.<\/span><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

      \n
    1. \n

      So Many Students Go Here <\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      \"QuadWith the majority of students living off campus and having all online classes, the only students on campus during the day were the freshmen who were living in the dorms. There was rarely a line at Ram\u2019s Den at 12pm on a Tuesday, which is something that is unheard of this year. People were never really on the quad, never walking around, and you certainly didn\u2019t have to wait in line to get down the stairs after your class. Coming back to school this year and realizing how many people go here was a surreal experience. I didn\u2019t think that I had a bad freshman year experience because I didn\u2019t know any different, but when I came back for my sophomore year, I realized how much I was actually missing from the campus experience.<\/span><\/p>\n

       <\/p>\n

        \n
      1. \n

        It\u2019s Way Easier To Stay Motivated in Person <\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        \"ClassIn my opinion, I have found it way easier to stay on top of all of my work with the return of in person classes. I know that this opinion can be controversial for some, however actually having to get out of bed in the morning has made staying motivated to do my classwork and go to class. It\u2019s too easy to just not log onto your Zoom call, but having to physically move your body to get to class makes it a lot easier not to skip. In my opinion, of course. I know that I will probably get some negative feedback on this one. <\/span><\/p>\n

         <\/p>\n

          \n
        1. \n

          Campus is One Large Hill <\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

          \"MackalLiving in Hillside during a COVID school year, I was relatively close to everything that I would ever need. The Memorial Union was up the road, Butterfield was across the street, the library was a five minute walk away, and I never had to go to any classes. Needless to say, I was in for a rude awakening when I moved to Fraternity Circle this year and had to walk up to Swan Hall for the first time. The hill is brutal. It\u2019s brutal when it\u2019s cold, it\u2019s brutal when it\u2019s hot, it\u2019s brutal when <\/span>it\u2019s icy, it\u2019s just brutal all the time. Allotting enough time to walk all the way across campus is definitely something that I had to get used to, especially when I need to leave 15 minutes before my class\u2019 start time sometimes. However, the Rhody Blue Line shuttle was an absolute lifesaver once I could figure out how to take it. I never walk anywhere anymore. <\/span><\/p>\n

          Of all the things that I learned as a \u201cfreshmore,\u201d these are some of the first things that come to mind. While this year certainly is not completely back to normal, it\u2019s definitely much better and much different than what we experienced in the 2020-21 school year. I can\u2019t wait to experience what my older friends say a COVID-free college year is like, but for now, I\u2019m thankful for what I have and what I can get.<\/span><\/p>\n

           <\/p>\n

          \"HeadshotHi! I\u2019m Juliana and I\u2019m a sophomore Communications and Journalism student from Brookfield, CT. I can\u2019t wait to continue my passion for writing as a blog writer for InsideRec! Outside of Campus Recreation, I\u2019m also involved in Greek Life, the Good Five Cent Cigar, and URI 101 mentoring. In my free time, you can find me watching the sunset in Narragansett, sitting on the quad with my friends, or in the line at Dunkin\u2019 Donuts. I\u2019m looking forward to writing more blog-style posts and giving advice from my own experiences!<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

          Listen to a reading of the Things I Learned as a ‘Freshmore’ blog The class of 2024 certainly did not have a normal freshman year experience. After our senior year of high school got ruined by the original COVID breakout, we were forced into online school for our first year. Due to this, campus was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4096,"featured_media":5243,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spring-2022"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/inside-rec\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/inside-rec\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/inside-rec\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/inside-rec\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4096"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/inside-rec\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5195"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/inside-rec\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5195\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5245,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/inside-rec\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5195\/revisions\/5245"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/inside-rec\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/inside-rec\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/inside-rec\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/inside-rec\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}