Week 1, Done

It saddens me to think that I’m going home in five days. The weekend is ending and I can’t imagine leaving my new friends to go back to the West Coast. As cliché is it may sound, I feel like I’ve known these people for ages even though it’s only been a week.

Today marked the second week of my trip to Rhode Island, and my first week of studying here at Brown University. I’m currently getting a taste of the dorm life, and it has changed my mind about what I expect when I go off to college in fall of 2012.

Before coming here to Brown, I thought I was set on saving money and skipping the dorm life and moving into an apartment. I wouldn’t have to pay extra for food and laundry facilities, I would be free to use the bathroom whenever I want, and I wouldn’t have to worry about the awkwardness of living with a room mate. However, after only one week of living in the dorms, I’ve been convinced otherwise.

Now, not only am I in love with Brown University, but I am also looking forward to living in a dorm regardless of whatever college I make it into. It may be a little too early to say this, but I would relive the week in a heartbeat just so I could have another week to spend with the amazing people I’ve met in my dorm building.

I don’t have much to say about what happened today, which was mostly walking along Thayer Street and hanging out in the dorms, so this blog entry is mostly a reflective entry about how I’ve been feeling throughout my first week at Brown.

During the week, I’ve learned more about how to be an effective leader, the roles of gender stereotypes in society, and how much media affects the status of women than I have in my whole lifetime. I love my teacher, Kisa Takesue, for being such an engaging educator. She makes me look forward to class every day and she makes the day go by so quickly. We need more teachers like her.

I’ve also experienced so much more acceptance here than back at home, where people “know” where they belong and stick to that group. Rather, during the Summer@Brown session, students who barely knew each other welcomed each other into their rooms then introduced themselves. I gained friends at such a fast rate that I wouldn’t be able to hang out with all of them at once. Nobody dislikes anybody else because we all realize that there simply isn’t enough time in our session to hold grudges and be uncivil.

Week 2, I’m ready for you.