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I am the youngest member of our blogging crew here at Keuka, being only a sophomore. So I remember probably the best just what it was like before I got to Keuka, and how unbearably nervous I got. I remember on August 21, 2007,  I couldn’t sleep, and I was in a hotel, so that I could get there early to unpack and get the bed I wanted. I couldn’t wait to meet my roommates, and to meet all the people I had been talking to online on the Keuka 2011 group on facebook.

Transition Week turned out to be the best week of my freshmen year. Looking back I can’t help but smile, my mentor was amazing, and all of the freshmen in my mentee group ended up being some of my closest friends, and the freshmen had the whole campus to ourselves. My mentor group was all undecided majors, just like me. Some of them ended up being majors that share classes with me a lot, like one of them is a communications major. It was amazing. I skipped a few of the events because I thought they would be boring, and I ended up regretting it, all the freshmen talked about some of the events in such a positive light I wish I could go back in time and go to everything.

I loved it so much I decided to become a mentor myself.

Transition Week sophomore year was totally different, but I got the same feelings the night before, not being able to sleep, excited to meet my mentees, and one of my roommates, who transferred into Keuka. I was even excited to live with my roommates that I picked, because I never lived with any of them before that. My mentees and I clicked very well, and some are still my very good friends, even at the end of the semester, I still eat lunch at least three of them a week. They still come to me for advice, especially about their new schedules, like what classes they should take, and what teachers they should avoid.

I did get very frustrated though when they missed things, and I felt bad for my mentor, knowing that just a year ago I was doing the same thing.

I am so glad I got to experience Transition Week twice, from both perspectives, as an incoming freshmen and as a mentor, because it made me realize that every single thing that is planned is important, and to skip them is really dumb, because you learn so much from everything. We don’t ask you to just go to things for us, everything is for you. So when you get here, go to everything you’re required to go to. When we say it’s very important for you to follow the Transition Week schedule to a T, we mean it.

Not to scare you, because it really was a great experience, honestly. I plan to be a mentor again next year, just so I can experience it again.