Freshmen at Large - Stephanie Hodges Pt. 1

Dang it. I’m about 27 hangers short, I brought way too many mesh laundry bags to stuff into my microscopic closet space and this box of cereal has literally been devoured within the last 20 minutes. Dorm life definitely does not fit into the dreamy, heaven-on-earth description plastered on every page of Bed, Bath and Beyond’s “Extreme Dorm Edition;” but guess what? I love it.
Yeah, I’m a freshman — a clueless, fresh-out-of-high-school, dorm-dwelling freshman, and in all honesty, I am pretty proud of it.
Let me introduce myself.
Howdy, my name is Stephanie Hodges, and I am a freshman communications major from The Woodlands, Texas, but most importantly, I am the proudest member of the Fightin’ Texas Aggie Class of 2010. AAAAAAAA!
As I mentioned earlier, I am one of countless freshmen that will be pathetically staggering around campus in a futile attempt to find my PSYC 107 class within the next few weeks.
However, as innumerable as my classmates may be, I have found over the past few weeks that here at A&M, I am less of an insignificant number and more of an individual.
My new student conference is what first showed me that A&M cared about me more as a member of its community than as an extra name to add to admissions. All my friends at Baylor, Oklahoma and even the infamous t.u. went to their colleges’ orientations and, to be perfectly honest, I think they were pretty jealous that their orientations didn’t include full-out yell practice and small group time.
Yeah, it was awkward, but hey, it took the stress off of registration and gave everyone a few more names to search for on Facebook. What was so impressive was the fact that A&M cares enough about its students to make something as monotonous as orientation into a social event, providing us with the opportunity to meet people not only from our majors but from all over the freshman class.
As if an interactive, entirely entertaining orientation were not enough, Fish Camp came two months later. Who would ever have known that driving into a parking lot of literally insane, multi-colored counselors would end in full-fledged crying sessions and reluctant goodbyes? And now 42 friend requests, 11 messages and 33 wall posts later, I’m sitting here in my dorm, staring at these four walls I can call my own. However, despite the rapidly escalating amount of students around me, I feel at home. Because of A&M’s countless attempts to draw my classmates and me deeper into the Aggie community, we know that we belong here at A&M, no matter how many times we forget where our classes are. I can speak for my class when I say that we feel completely prepared for what college may bring.
Get ready, Texas A&M. The class of 2010 is on campus. Bring it on.