For the first time since leaving for Brown one of our Brownies admitted to being homesick. Surprisingly, it was not me who initially missed home, Stephanie admitted it first. We were sitting down during lunch the other day and Stephanie mentioned that when she saw a plane flying overhead, it reminded her of home. That was all it took to get her to think of home!
I was surprised that she missed home so soon after leaving. We have all been so busy that I thought we had not had enough time to think about the things we missed. I assumed that everyone was busy thinking about completing homework and class projects. I have been having so much fun learning about DNA and meeting new people that I have not had the time to even think about being homesick. All the activities I have been participating in have occupied my time to the point where I have not really been thinking about home.
One thing I have learned about myself is that as long as I keep myself occupied, I do not get homesick as easily. I have been getting myself up on time in the morning and have been doing everything that I need to do to take care of myself. At home, my parents make sure I am up on time every morning. With the help of my fellow Brownies, we make sure that we all make it to breakfast by 7:30 AM. We also make it a point to eat together during lunch even though we get out of class at different times. After our classes are done, we also complete our homework together. When we get hungry for dinner, we all head over to the dining hall together to eat and we always sit together. We are functioning like a family even though we have only been together a short amount of time. It is really nice to have someone you can count on while away from home.
It seems that I am a lot more comfortable meeting new people when I am with my friends. When I’m alone I don’t feel comfortable going up to someone and starting a conversation. When you are alone you may not know what to ask or you may run out of things to talk about. If I am with my friends they think of things to talk to the person about while I listen intently. This has helped me to be more assertive in class when I am working in a group with people I do not know. Since I have been shy in the past, watching how my friends interact with people they meet for the first time, has given me some strategies I can use whenever I meet new people.
I met Bryce through Austin Long. Bryce is a student in our class. I never would have guessed that I would be talking to him because I do not usually socialize with guys I do not know, but Austin does. Now that he knows Austin, he has been sitting with us during our meals. I feel much more comfortable talking to him now because I know a little more about him through Austin. This is teaching me that in order to meet people, I have to come out of my shell of shyness. Sometimes it is uncomfortable but I am learning.
Megan.
ReplyDeletePart of life is having enough confidence in yourself to be able to walk up to a total stranger and initiate a conversation. It's tough at first but the more you do it the easier it becomes.
I suppose that we all have our own insecurities from time to time but we need to break out and be the aggressor. We need to be the ones to extend our hand and introduce ourselves. We can't always wait for it to happen on its own because all too often it never does.
Part of being a member of the ILC is to develop a level of confidence in yourself that might not have been there before. In most cases we see that when our people return from back east they're not really the same people they were when they left. Their sureness in themselves is evident.
Requiring you all to attend the dinners to meet and converse with alums and sponsors, to speak at these events, to stand before the School Board and City Councils and to work as a team with your fellow ILC members and the members of your classes--these are all tools to help prepare you for life after high school where your confidence in your abilities and in who you are can play a major role in how successful you become.
You're already starting this by bonding with your five other ILC cohorts and now--after a week--you're allowing yourself to talk with your classmates. You still have a couple of weeks left so you might want to extend your hand to the others in your class as well as on your residence hall floor. When you get that mastered sometime in the next day or two, think about the rest of Providence.