[Ed. note: Much of what you have read in this back-to-school edition was the product of the hard work of Addison Themer. A 2018 graduate of Kingfisher High School and now a sophomore at Oklahoma State University, Addison has spent the last two summers working at the Times & Free Press. Before she returned to school, however, she reflected back on her freshman year in Stillwater. She gives us - and you and possibly your college student - an idea of what to expect, including the unexpected, as they make their transition into the college life.]

A year ago I was preparing to head to Stillwater for my first semester of college.

Packing for college and setting up your room can be challenging.

Everyone is bound to bring something that they will never use and forget to pack something absolutely essential.

For me, having a thick curtain or a blackout curtain was essential. I also had to make a Walmart trip to buy storage tubs for under my bed when I ran out of space in my dresser.

When moving back home at the end of the year, I realized I brought close to 20 books and notepads I never even opened.

I also realized that it was unnecessary for me to bring almost my entire closet full of clothes with me to school when I didn’t wear a lot of it.

My roommates brought boxes full of kitchen appliances that we used only once or twice because we needed to use our campus meal plans and let’s face it, it is a lot easier to grab something quick to eat than to actually cook dinner each night.

I moved in a week early so I could go through sorority recruitment.

Going into the year I wasn’t sure what to expect. I always felt “busy” in high school with FFA, cheer-leading, student council and other activities I was involved in, but I had heard that nothing compares to how busy you are in college.

First semester was a whirlwind. Recruitment ended on Saturday and classes started Monday morning.

The evening of the first day of classes was also the first activity I was required to attend for my sorority.

Second semester slowed down, but I was taking seven classes, so I was a different kind of “busy.”

Looking back on the first semester though, I wasn’t sure how anyone made it through.

My weeks consisted of going to class during the day, pomping 12 hours a week for “America’s Greatest Homecoming,” coke dates two to three evenings a week with fraternities, and new member meetings once a week for my sorority.

The beginning of the school year is also when most of the applications for campus organizations open.

I was involved in the President’s Leadership Class and I applied for the Freshman Representative Council which met once a week.

I often found myself eating dinner at 9 p.m. or later because that would be my first opportunity to eat that evening.

After completing freshman year, I have an entirely different view on the word “busy.”

In the midst of the chaos of freshman year, I dealt with many challenges I had not anticipated.

For example, I lived in an on-campus apartment with three other girls and it was equipped with a washer and dryer.

To our surprise, the washing machine did not work when we moved in.

After calling maintenance and having someone fix it, we then found out our dryer was not venting properly.

Once the dryer was fixed, we ran into another issue; our washing machine stopped draining the water.

Eventually it started working again, only to stop turning on a few days later.

After a series of issues for the first couple months, we finally had a working washer and dryer.

While we were able to adapt to not having a properly functioning washer and dryer, it definitely wasn’t something I had expected to deal with at the start of school.

Throughout the year, I also found it harder to find time to come back home as often as I wanted to.

Even when I wanted to come home, I often needed to stay in Stillwater on the weekends for events or interviews for organizations.

I also struggled to study when I came home because I wanted to devote my time to interacting with my family.

On weekends prior to exams, I found I was more productive if I stayed at school instead of coming home.

As someone who loves being involved, I also found it challenging to decide what organizations to apply for and which opportunities I had to let pass me by.

While the first year definitely came with some challenges, there were also a lot of pleasant surprises.

For example, classes were not as hard as I had expected them to be.

College students are always talking about “pulling all-nighters” to study for exams or finish papers, but I found that if you use your spare time efficiently an all-nighter is not necessary.

Don’t get me wrong, I definitely stayed up well past the average person’s bedtime to finish projects and prepare for exams. In the end though, I knew I personally needed to get sleep before walking into the classroom the next day if I wanted to perform well in class.

When I graduated from Kingfisher, I knew I was leaving a chapter behind and had many close friends I was not ready to leave.

I still value and invest in those friendships, but I found that it was a lot easier to develop close, intentional friendships with new people than I was expecting.

The first year of college is a different experience for everyone, but my advice for someone moving in is to not get frustrated if you don’t click with a new classmate or potential friend immediately or if your new friendships don’t have the same dynamic as your friendships with people from high school do.

Don’t get frustrated if balancing your busy schedule is harder than you expected and it seems like you are drowning in assignments.

Give it some time and you will come to realize that by being fully invested in your classes, the organizations you get involved in, and the people you meet, your freshman year will fly by and you will be counting down the days until you get to go back to school.