Takeaways From My First College Term
Wow. 2024 has been quite a year, and not just for me personally but I think everyone I know can say the same. I’ve definitely got to give all the credit to God for making it through this year though, I’ve drawn closer to Him this year and He’s guided me through some really tough stuff. With that said, there's plenty that I could talk about from this year, but I want to focus on the last three months where I've been off on my own in college. Again, there's a lot to cover regarding my relatively short time in college, so I probably won’t cover it all. However, I do want to hit on the major takeaways I got from living on campus and going to school at OIT. So, bear with me as I attempt to put the ramblings of my mind onto the page.
Moving Out
The first thing I want to discuss is the idea of moving out on my own for the first time, and in my case moving away from my hometown. Klamath Falls is about an hour and a half away from Medford (where I’ve lived my entire life), so by no means is it very far. However, it’s far enough that I definitely felt as if I had moved away and not just moved out. Whenever I pictured myself moving out for the first time, I had always imagined I would be scared, nervous, anxious, and feeling underprepared. However, this was not the case when the time came. I was quite honestly very calm, and didn’t have super strong feelings about it – positive or negative. I’d like to say this is a testament to how amazing of a job my parents have done acclimating me to the world, allowing me to be independent, and being supportive of my endeavors. Since we traveled so much, and because of how much my parents let me do on my own, moving out by myself felt like a very minor step compared to the plethora of experiences I’ve had throughout my life.
Now obviously, I dearly missed my parents and by the end of the welcome week I was very tired mentally and physically so there were some tears shed. Despite this, not once did I ever seriously think that I couldn’t handle being out on my own. The other thing that aided in my confidence was the idea that God has a plan for me, and regardless of what happens to me I know that God’s perfect will would always prevail. So, between the faith I have in God and the wonderful job my parent did at preparing me, moving out felt like one of the least monumental things that I’ve done this year despite it being a fairly big deal for most.
Living On My Own and On Campus
It’s one thing to simply move away, but another to functionally live by myself. Luckily, I have a really great roommate (who I’ll talk more about later) who helps to keep me accountable, and I’d like to think I do the same for him. Living on a college campus is still very different from entirely living alone though. This is mostly because of the provided meals in the dining hall as well as all the fees associated with renting are bundled up into a single payment at the beginning of the term. I still must be self-sufficient though, making sure our living space is somewhere we actually want to be, assuring I have clean clothes and bedding, and also maintaining my personal health and hygiene. I’ve been doing these things to a great extent for quite a few years now, but it definitely felt a little different once wasn’t under my parent’s roof for the first time.
However, besides just not having my parents in the same house as me I’m not sure very much changed. It was definitely nice to not have my parents questioning me every time I left the house though, even though I know they’re doing it out of a place of care. What I do miss about living at home though was having a private bathroom and shower, and not having to traverse three flights of stairs to go get my laundry. I also appreciated having my own room at home, but sharing the room I have now with my roommate is seriously not as bad as it could be. Especially after I’ve heard other people’s experiences!
Now, there’s more to consider about the experience of living specifically on campus. While it would be nice to have my own space, and not have communal bathrooms, I did really appreciate the sense of community. Being able to stop by and knock on a friend’s door to hang out was super nice, and it allowed my friends to drag me out and be social even if I didn’t feel like it (which was ultimately very good for me, and I’ll touch on that more later). Also, not having to drive in order to get to classes, meals, the gym, and most other activities. While I did appreciate having a car, and it was almost certainly required for me to serve at church, it was even nicer to not be required to drive to get everywhere.
The food at the main OIT cafeteria wasn’t great, but it had calories, and it was tolerable most of the time. Plus, you’re required to have a meal plan when living on campus which means I already paid for the meals so I might as well eat them. Luckily the school had other offerings on campus that you could use the meal plan for that were much better. Yet, for some unknowable reason they closed them for finals week which is the ONE WEEK YOU’D ACTUALLY WANT THEM OPEN. BUT NOOOoooOOOooOOOoooOOO, WE DON’T WANT TO MAKE FINALS WEEK ANY MORE ENJOYABLE FOR THE STUDENTS WHO ARE ALREADY SUFFERING IN THEIR CLASSES. I perhaps have unchecked trauma, but I digress.
The final OIT specific thing was that the dorms are all geothermally heated, but once they turn on the heat for the winter, they don’t turn it back off. The heat being on wasn’t the problem, we never got blasted out of our room. However, our room was never quite warm enough. The heat turned on about a week too late, so we were cold that whole time and when it did finally get turned on, it wasn’t very noticeable (and still isn’t) so we were just cold in our room the whole time. Fortunately, that problem could be solved by just wearing a couple more layers. With that aside, the food was probably the overall worst part of living at OIT specifically. Everything else was manageable and honestly not too bad, even the heating.
Friendships – Both Old and New
So, if moving out and living on my own wasn’t the scary or hard part, then what was? Well, I’m glad you (yes, you! The person in my head whom I am currently talking to) asked! In my opinion it was moving away from my friends. The thing I was most concerned about was losing old friendships and struggling to make new ones. In talking to my roommate this was his biggest concern as well. Luckily, this fear was unfounded and ultimately was dispelled entirely. Over the course of the roughly three months or so that I was away at school I felt that I grew closer with my old friends, and I formed great connections with new people too.
I thank God every day for the friends he’s given me, and this term at school really shows the amazing people He put in my life. “I think we’ve talked more since I’ve left than we did before” was something I said frequently to my friends back home, and I was incredibly grateful that that’s how it was. As I mentioned above, I was worried that moving away would mean I’d basically be giving up these friendships. That’s not what it meant at all, it just meant I had the opportunity to make new friends while maintaining the same friendships I had at home. I had expressed to all my friends that I wanted to stay in touch, and that if they ever wanted to reach out to me just to call and they really stepped up, I felt loved and connected to them, oftentimes more so than when I was within 10 miles of them. It also helped me to feel even more comfortable than I already did with calling my friends out of the blue, something that I’ve tried to work on over the last couple years.
On the new friendships side of things, I’ve got to
give a huge thanks to my roommate who encouraged me to be social. The first
night on campus we went to play ping pong in the common area, and that’s where
we met most of our current close friends. He was the one to suggest we do that,
and if it wasn’t for him, I don’t think I’d have quite as much of a social life.
The other place that I’ve made close friends is church, and the Christian college
group on campus. These people have been great, encouraging, and just generally
fun to talk to and hangout with. I appreciate all my new friends, but I
repeatedly thank the Lord for the amazing college group and people I’ve met
through it.
One last thing, if you’re reading this and are considering going to college, please get plugged into whatever college group is active, it’s so amazing and makes things so much better.
Finding a Church
Speaking
of a good college group, sometimes schools won’t have one that’s Christian
based but a local church might. I landed at Calvary Chapel Klamath Falls, it was
the first church I tried out on a recommendation from the head pastor at my
previous church, and I immediately fell in love with it. Their core beliefs are
exactly what I think a church should be, their head pastor is great, so is
their youth/college pastor, and their college group leader is awesome too. Everyone
there is very welcoming, and they have a solid number of college students going
which is amazing to see. Between all these things and many more I really liked
the church, and I immediately wanted to start attending and serving there too.
Eventually I got plugged into the livestream ministry, which is great, I’m
happy wherever I am as long as I get to serve as I feel that’s what the Lord
has called me to do.
The other thing about a church is the sense of peace and stability it offers you. Frequently, when school and worldly people or friends were getting me down church was the place that I could go that would refresh my spirit, and I could take a deep breath again. Whether it was the teaching of that day, or if it was the people who I got to talk to, it all just helped so incredibly much. I can’t thank God enough for how amazing of a church he’s placed me in, and I hope to continue to attend and serve there for as long as I am able. Also, if you’re ever in the Klamath Falls area come check out CCKF! They’re truly great, and we’d be more than happy to have you.
Managing the School Load
One of the smallest changes for me was actually the schooling side of things. Since I’ve been attending Rogue Community College since freshman year of high school, starting at OIT was not very different at all. In fact, I said regularly that this term was the easiest 16 credits I have ever taken. I stand by this statement, and I feel confident that I’ll be ending the term with a solid 4.0 (I’ll update this post if this is untrue, but this post goes up before final grades are posted).
In all honesty, the work was very similar to RCC in a good way. I didn’t have to allocate time differently, and the professors still acted as many college professors do. Actually, the biggest change was by far not knowing any of the professors. Especially since my last term at RCC I was completing the third class in a sequence for all of my classes, so I knew all my professors and what to expect from them. However, it only took about three weeks before I was used my professors at OIT so that difference quickly wore off. Outside of that, the only other difference was honestly trying to navigate the campus the first few weeks. Again though, after two to three weeks I was very comfortable with that as well.
Navigating the School System
The thing that unfortunately did change between institutions was how to navigate the non-academic school systems. Luckily, I was generally on top of things so I looked through all the different submenus of their online system and whatnot before classes started to get a feel for how to navigate things. However, OIT’s website is terrible which is ironic for a technical institution. How is it terrible I hear you ask? It has no information on it, or if it does it’s terrible to try and navigate to find it.
The other difference was having to interact with the financial aid department, as when I was at RCC my high school paid for everything, so I didn’t have to worry about anything like that. Funding and financial aid were the things that caused the most grief for me personally. I didn’t want to have to face the fact that I owed a bunch of money, so I procrastinated calling them and working things out, which ultimately bit me in the butt. I’d like to say I’ve learned my lesson and am willing to talk to financial aid much more readily now but only time will tell I suppose. I’ve got to give a huge shout out to my dad for supporting me and continuing to remind me to do these things. Without him, I think I’d be in a much worse position, and I don’t want to imagine what that would be like. So truly thank you dad, if/when you read this.
To anyone starting school in the near future who happens to stumble across this (for some reason), please reach out to your financial aid department as soon as possible. Ask them what money you can get and what your options are. They’re people too, and they’re just there to try and help you. Many of them went to college too (and if they didn’t talk to one that did) so they understand what you’re going through. Also, start scholarships early! I didn’t, and I missed out on a lot of what is essentially free money. Sure, you might have to write a few essays for it but in the long run it’ll save you a lot of headaches.
Conclusion
I think that’s just about everything. At least everything I feel like covering! There’s a lot more that I could potentially talk about, but I got the big ideas across. Hopefully, this will serve as a good archive to see where I am mentally after my first term in college. I really just want to say thank you again to my parents for making this whole process so amazing and raising me to be prepared for all the monumental changes that this year has brought. A huge thank you to all my friends both old and new, who made this term just that much better. Finally, last but the opposite of least I need to thank God once again for the amazing opportunity to go to college, and the amazing people He’s surrounded me with. I truly don’t know how I would’ve made it this far without the Lord, and the support he’s given me directly or through others.
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