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It’s that time of the year on college campuses all around the country! All the residence halls opened up this morning at Webster, so that means move-in day! Ever since I left student affairs and transitioned into graduate admissions, I have had made a lot effrot in participating in these activities to welcome students. In my world of admissions, unlike student affairs, I only interact with the same student for a few months before, therefore I don’t have that longetivity of student-staff relationship like I used to have (and I miss it).

I vividly remember my first move-in day at Texas Tech 10 years ago. Living in a residence hall (or dorm like some people call it) was a new concept for an immigrant family like ours. The early morning line-up of cars and 600 student residents moving in at the same time with two elevators (but one broken later in the day) was quite a scene to witness and to partake in. I was a clueless incoming freshman overwhelmed by the scene while my dad was fighting through the crowd to move everything to room on the 2nd floor; my mom was furiously unpacking everything and asking where I wanted to stuff to be placed.

That same panic/excitment/nervousness/clueless/sweaty people are happening right now. I excused myself from my office for 3 hours to volunteer moving stuff this morning. I can’t remember how many different rooms I went to and how many different random things (these kids bring these days) I’ve had to carry. All I know is that by 11am, I had already exceeded way past 10,000 steps (according to Fitbit) and 4 miles worth of walking (but really, taking stairs…for 3 hours).

It was a super exhausting, but fun, morning. I loved seeing parents looking embarrased because their kid had to bring the whole dual monitors/a full computer tower/7 speakers to people freaking out when they realized they forgot to buy a mini fridge. Also, there were a LOT of Amazon Prime deliveries this morning – definitely a different phenomenon from what I’ve experienced 10 years ago.

My body is tired, but my heart is full becuase seeing these students got me excited for the academic year. The orientation leaders bursting out in Lion King tunes to distract from frustrated students and parents in the heat to seeing two students meeting each other for the first time as roommates, these are all experiences that they will end up remembering for a really long time.

#WebsterUniversity #newstudentorientation #moveinday #highereducation #backtoschool