First Year Forecast: Adjust, Adapt, and Modify

The following is a narration based on a study conducted by the University of Windsor.

The first set of three Chemistry midterms had just finished. April glanced around with a curious suspicion and a creeping sense that most of her classmates felt as unsettled as she did. There was no denying the fact that this had been the hardest midterm she had ever dealt with.

September had brought with it lots of changes, and it had begun to become more apparent that some of these changes would wait for a while before they resolved. There were so many people from high school that April had kept in touch with, but there were also a lot of people that had disappeared. Knowing the exact things to do had always been easy and now things were changing in unexpected ways. Studying had become a lot harder. April realized her lack of depth and the difficulty that she would have continuing with this course. Residence life was isolating but exciting nonetheless. It’s different being around people that you’ve just met and not people that you’ve known for a long time. Communication with people from home had been great, but it was starting to become tiresome. The month had presented many difficulties with becoming familiar with facilities on campus.

October was the month that her roommate had started arguing with her. April had visited home for the first time since starting at Acadia and was excited to continue her adventures. Acadia was become more familiar and things were becoming a lot easier.

November brought with it a brilliant amount of uncomplicated troubles and straightforward assignments. School was becoming less stressful and everything was becoming more peaceful. There were no more nights of assignments being completed at the last minute.

December’s exams had caused a lot of late nights and spending too much time at meal hall. There was too much going on and too many people leaving at different times. As much as April was excited to see her family, there was also a lot of stressing over changing her major.

January brought with it the realization that her exams and fall semester had not gone as well as they could have. There were too many problems to count, and she could tell that many of her fellow classmates also felt disappointed. Sadness and disappointment were paramount among fellow first year students.

February brought exhilaration and excitement. There was a lot of anticipation for the upcoming year. April felt delighted to know that the school year was getting easier. Classes that had once felt complicated had now become less challenging and the academic year was now taking a major turn.

March was filled with anticipation of summer and possible living arrangements for the following year. There was also much excitement over possible summer job opportunities.

April was bittersweet in that it presented many boring nights of studying, but also a delightful excitement for the summer to come.

Although the academic year had presented many difficulties, many of these problems had ceased to exist over the course of the year and April was excited for everything to start again.