The fact that other people are going to read this still hasn’t hit me yet. However, it’s one of the many culture shocks of college learning compared to high school. Hey there, my name is Chloe Callahan, and I’m a freshman attending my first year at this lovely institution that I’ve been enjoying so much (you guys got that right). All jokes aside, though, my first few weeks at Geneseo have gone quite smoothly (so far) and have been very enjoyable. I’m a Political Science major who lives four hours away in a small town outside New York City called Warwick. I have a super exceptional support system, including my dad, who doubles as the best free therapist (thank you so much, and I’m so sorry). My amazing mom (who has graciously taken care of my horse while I’m not home) keeps me up to date on everything going on at home in great detail. My brother Jack is a Junior who goes to SUNY Oswego (two hours away) and constantly lets me know when our hockey teams will be playing against one another. Now I don’t know anything about hockey, but I appreciate the facetime calls.
College has definitely been filled with lots of emotions, which for me, many stem from my attempts to find a schedule that works for me and the time I have within a day, which is overwhelming but an experience I wouldn’t change for the world right now. I’m meeting great new friends and creating relationships with people I would never have before- including professors and other staff members. It’s so comforting that anyone I turn to has welcomed me and my questions with open arms. I tend to have pretty heavy amounts of anxiety when stepping into new, unknown things, and I have had a few difficult moments with me trying to micro-manage every living moment. Still, the more I talk to friends and peers, I realize I’m not alone. I’ve been able to strike up conversations with anyone in class or in line for food at RJ’s (dining hall). I’ve been able to relate to multiple people, Making me feel a whole lot better.
The classes I have been placed into are captivating, they have caught my attention in learning and topics so far, so I’m delighted to say I’ve been enjoying them. They’ve been different from high school in terms of work and information load. In high school, you were told what notes to take and when to start studying for a test. Not to mention your parents being up to date on all the work you did and having access to your grades whenever they felt like checking. College is a whole new level of responsibility. It’s up to me as a student to decide what I believe is important enough to be written down during lectures, stay on top of studying current information given every day, and stay consistent. Moreover, being completely on my own when it comes to reaching out to professors about grades and how to improve if need be. During this class, I hope to better polish my writing and look forward to reading more about Greek tragedies in relation to Veterans and how these tragedies can be used to help them cope. When I entered this class, I was so excited to see what it was all about, and so far, I have not been disappointed.
My favorite reading we have done for this class so far has been the book The Theater of War by Bryan Doerries. The book’s prologue explores how people who have had traumatic events happen in their lives can better understand and relate to the telling of Greek tragedies. They can give us a better understanding of these stories and unlock new meanings that we were never able to dive into before, and it’s been so good just within the first chapter. The author uses lots of self-reflection and helps bring the book to a new personal level. I feel like this book has been my favorite since I have gone through tragic times within my short eighteen years in this world, and when being in that state of absolute loss, you start to see the reasoning through the extreme actions of people in Greek plays and tragedies. I was skeptical about starting this blog, but as I find myself at the end of my first one, it feels nice to write about feelings of happiness and anxiety, especially after reading last year’s first chronicles. Everyone more or less has found themselves in the same boat. I’m genuinely looking forward to what I come up with and comparing this writing to the middle and last blog posts.