If you couldn’t tell from my article, "Accepted? Time to crush it," I believe that the time to take action is always NOW. Why wait until tomorrow when you can start being (more) awesome today?
I’m a highly introspective person and I often reflect on how my various experiences have changed my life. I never regret what I’ve done because it’s made me into who I am, but it’s interesting to look back and see where the roads you decided to take have led you. While reflecting on my time spent here at the University of Rochester, I can’t help but think about how I met my core group of friends. The results might be surprising; I didn’t meet them because they were on my hall (I love you guys too, though) or because we play sports together, but because I either met them or someone who met them through Facebook or through EcoReps.
I’m not saying that everyone should be as extroverted as I was on Facebook, but it helped me to meet my current roommate, with whom I have an awesome relationship, and two of my greatest friends here. Shout out to Bram Adams and Douglas Reyes for taking the time to seek me out the first day of Orientation. It has changed my UR experience infinitely and all because we talked a bit on the Facebook group.
EcoReps is also a great networking opportunity. I originally joined because I was super environmentally concerned, but the greatest benefits of being an EcoRep have definitely been the people I’ve met. I think what makes the group of EcoReps so interesting is that, contrary to popular belief, we all joined for different reasons. Some of us wanted to just jump into UR and get involved, others are passionate about the environment, and some of us probably just wanted to get to college as soon as possible. Either way, if you join EcoReps, you end up meeting 30 kids before anyone else is even on campus, and each of those 30 kids all live on different freshman halls. That means that before everyone is even at school, you know someone on every freshman hall. This decision has helped me to meet more people than even through Facebook, and I highly recommend applying!
These are just the two main decisions that helped me to meet people and build a network at the University of Rochester before Orientation even began. If you take anything away from this blog post, it should be that your experience starts whenever you decide; as much as you’re still in high school, you can make decisions and friends which will shape your University of Rochester experience, today!