My first year at UMass Boston

*me as a freshman!

My first year at Umass was a tough one, as for a lot of other students. Transitioning from high school to College was different, but I wouldn’t characterize it as difficult. In order to truly understand what I mean by this is to know a piece of my own personal background.

I’ve lived in Massachusetts my entire life. My parents moved a few places when I young but I always considered Boston, specifically Dorchester to always be my hometown. A majority of my school life was in Catholic School which was great. I loved the discipline, the structure, but most importantly, how I was able to grow up with my classmates and even the faculty of my school. It sounds weird to say this but when you actually take the time to reflect on your life, sometimes the good outweighs the odds.

I then went on to high school where my first year was in Catholic school and then I transferred to a Charter school my second year, up until I graduated. High school I would say was difficult for me. There are many reasons why, but the biggest reason was because I didn’t realize how big the transition was going to impact me. I didn’t know how to cope with it all, and I felt like I was getting through just to get to the next level. I wasn’t getting the support I needed and I immediately regretted transitioning from a catholic school.That was really hard for me and looking back if I had realized this beforehand my decisions would have been so much different. Then came college, and I was most excited for this transition.

I was ready to be challenged. I was ready to learn the things I wanted to learn. I was ready to meet people like me, that I can relate to. I was also ready to get involved and I wanted to join as many clubs or organizations my campus had to offer me. UMass Boston (though it wasn’t my first choice :) ) it was an ideal choice, it was a practical choice. I live 5 minutes away in the Harbor Point Community and am also the third person in my family to graduate college. Both of the graduates in my family were UMass Boston Alumni. So I decided to give it a try and thankfully I was accepted into the DSP program in the summer before my freshmen semester. The DSP program encouraged me to become confident in being a student here by allowing me to learn about the school, strengthen my academic skills, and improve my Verbal, Math and Language skills. I was accepted into the program because at that time I did not have the admission requirements, so I was really thankful for this program. To add on to that, I made friends that I still speak to today.

Although DSP prepared me a lot for my first year, obviously nothing is like the first day. You're trying to find your classes, there's a lot of people who are either really confused or really focused and they are all running around, going from place to place, and then you're in a huge lecture hall and you're thinking to yourself, how am I going to make friends? It was tough but I remember thinking to myself: be different. To do things outside of my norm that did not change my character, but helped strengthen it. I put myself out there and talked to people first. I reached out to my professors so they could get to know who I am. I tried my best to engage. All these things sound pretty positive huh. But eventually the workload came and the stress was right behind it. I started to lose my balance and that unfortunately impacted my academics. Looking back on that year, I think I still wasn’t fully prepared and I definitely could have tried harder. That's the reality of college. In my opinion you can be prepared, but not ready. You have a sense of how things will be but forget that you're a human being, and if you aren’t working enough you fall short.

I took my winter break to reflect and thought of how I wanted my new year to look. I had to consider all of the things I failed on, but also all the things I was successful at. I had to be disciplined and realize the mistakes of last semester were no more. Things had to change. So I learned how to use Wiser (properly) and I picked my classes. I was excited because I felt a connection to the classes I was going to, take rather than solely having to take them. My semester had ups and downs just like any semester. But it was different because I knew what to look out for and what to do. I became communicative with my teachers. I formed deeper relationships with my peers, and I took my studies really seriously. I even chose a second major, Africana Studies, to add onto my other major of Communication. Everything went well because I had prepared for that semester to go well.

If this is your first year in college or not I would really advise you to have goals for how you want your semester to go. Manifest it by thinking realistically how you'd like to see yourself by the end of semester. Would you like to be fulfilled with joy because you did exactly what you had prepared for? Or would you like to be wishing things had gone a different way? It's in your hands, but you have to really see it that way, and believe in yourself. Life takes you on a trip and you never know in which direction, but take that into consideration. School becomes a huge part of your life and it impacts everything. But I promise that if you do what's best for yourself while you're in school, you as person will be transformed. My first year was different, but “good different.”

~Damaris