First Week of College

Brad Campagna Kathy O'Rourke College has so far exceeded my expectations in a huge way. As a new member of the ice hockey team there were many uncertainties and worries, as well as tons of excitements and anticipations. Obviously the biggest part, school, was nerve wracking and exciting too. In college hockey its very common that players take a few years off of school prior to attending, to play hockey in junior hockey leagues. This created a bit more nerves then excitement for the classroom aspect of school since i've only taken 3 college courses since graduating high school, making it a bit harder to get back into the swing of things.Besides getting back into school routine, being a hockey player in college has made the beginning of school an unbelievable experience for me. On move-in day while still in the process of getting everything together, my roommate and I met the first player on our team. Since my roommate is also on my team it was a huge relief to meet someone before our parents even left. Since then it's been smooth sailing and have made number of friends on the team, many which I already know ill be very good friends with in the future. This was probably the biggest relief for me so far because I had no idea what to expect.I kept worrying about how the kids, especially the new recruits, would be and literally every one is an awesome person. I didn't realize how much being on a sports team would help me make friends this fast, which I am extremely grateful for. We've all had so much fun already and we are just one week into school. On top of all of that, we are all at least 20 years old and up as freshman. I think this gives us a big advantage of transition for things like college because we are all at least two years more mature then we would have if we had gone right from high school.Now that is not to toot my or any of my friends horns, but I do feel as if the maturity level is definitely higher then it would have been by the overall way we carr y and present ourselves as opposed to being 17 or 18. If the year is going to continue on like this, I can only imagine how much fun it's going to be. This is also all going without mentioning the hockey part. Hockey hasn't even started yet which excites me that much more. I think and hope we have a very good team that can do very well throughout the season. Now obviously college isn't all fun and games.The school aspect of college hasn't really sunk in yet since were not very far into the semester. It definitely concerns me somewhat, but I think I will end up doing well. I naturally have a good work ethic through hockey, so I plan on using that into the classroom. Sure it will be harder sometimes because of practices and games and whatnot, but thats what my teammates and the rest of the accommodations that Potsdam supplies for us are for. It's a good start for me professor wise, since pretty much all of them seem to be very good at what they do.The only thing that has gotten me a l ittle annoyed and anxious about is all the reading. Reading takes up a lot of time and that what most of college is. My time management needs to be very efficient if I'm going to do well this year. I hope my next four years here will just keep getting better and better as I meet new people and explore new things. There is still so much I haven't done yet and so many experiences I have to look forward too as long as my school works stays up to par.When my career at Potsdam is over I hope I will have accomplished my goal of excelling in every way whether its school, hockey, friends, community status and more. Obviously I plan on having my degree whether I continue with my Business major or change to something else. I hope and expect to have good grades throughout the whole experience not just getting by. I also expect to do very well in hockey and hope to make an immediate impact on the team and carry it out through the whole four years here.I also hope to have my friends that I've al ready made be my best friends and friends for the rest of my life. Finally by the time I leave Potsdam I hope to have had a big impact on the overall community. The hockey team stresses a high importance of being active in the community and having a positive attitude in every place in every situation. So far there's been much positivity here and I will be contributing to that as much as possible. If my whole time at Potsdam is going to be how this first week has been, then I anticipate having an extremely good experience here.