Readjusting my view

   On Saturday, I concluded a week of research at Alma College with the ASPIRE program, consisting of 35 other fortunate incoming freshman. The week brought a lot of new knowledge, more than I feel I could gain in a month of high school classes. I learned about bird banding, about how to handle birds, about the exist of plants without chlorophyll,  about raccoon litters, and about the vast research opportunities at Alma. Aside from scholarly learning, I also got a head start in interacting with my future Alma peers.

    To successfully interact with my fellow ASPIRE students, I had to learn lessons. You can call people out for douchery, only if you're humble about it. You can remain on good terms with others, despite brief turbulence. You can make friend groups with more ease, if you start with one person you click with. 

    I was paired with three other students in shadowing Professor Bishop in his early morning ornithology. We did not hit it off immediately. On our first day of research I told two of them that sometimes, they acted like douchebags. This is not a nice thing to do, even if I was pushed by what I perceived to be rude behavior on their part. I tried mending what I had said by underlining the words act and sometimes. Ultimately, I had to give them space for a day, and I was fortunate that they respected me for being up front with them. They could have ignored me or mistreated me for the rest of the week, but instead we all bonded. I am grateful for their forgiveness, and in the future I am going to be gentler with my confrontations. 

   One night I repeated the trend of being upfront with people when they did something I didn't like. Except I jumped the gun and misinterpreted someone's words as being full of malice. I exchanged raised tones with the person I confronted, but quickly left the situation to calm down. To my relief, I was able to get over the squabble and interact kindly with the person for the rest of the week. 

   From these two experiences, I now understand why some people claim that college is way different than high school, and why others claim that things never change. The change comes, only when you make it come. As I looked around at my peers, I could see what stereotypes and social realms they were stuck with in high school. This scared me, but then I remembered that none of us had a past together, and this was a fresh start. None of us were barred form interacting by the histories, feuds, and social classes of high school. I didn't even need to give up on relationships with people who I caused rough interactions with. 

   The first night of camp I wandered around despite my desire to hide in my room in the grasp of being socially overwhelmed. Fortunately, a guy was sitting in the hall right outside of his room. He had no posse to scare me. I thought it odd but great that he was just sitting there, open to interaction. I sat and we talked and soon I was introducing him to the wonders of Flight of the Conchords (he liked New Girl better, which I introduced him to later in the week.) Anthony and I quickly became bros and utilized the safety in numbers we had, to branch out to more friends. I was happy to find that I didn't need to go into the challenge of socializing alone. 

   I had to readjust my view to successfully interact with my peers, and it's still a work in progress, but I feel confident. Alma is great. Ornithology, research in South America, easy friendships, a leader of the RA's I've dubbed Willman, beautiful sycamore trees, tasty lasagna, a DJ professor, a prosperous bike trail, and many more blessings make for a very happy and excited Abi.