The Beginning of the End

It never ceases to amaze me how much hustle and bustle there is on campus before classes even begin! With people running around as orientation assistants, to RA and preceptor training sessions, or pre-season. Having been in at least two of those positions in my years at Wheaton, I have to say that it felt pretty good just being able to go to the lab every day while my friends. A lot of work and preparation goes into orientation and it can all seem grueling at times, but there is defintely a feeling of satisfaction knowing that you may have affected a new freshman in some way. For me, I was able to participate in a performance called “First Impressions,” an event where cast members share their experiences dealing with any sort of diversity on campus for an audience of made up of about 600 people with the vast majority of them being freshmen. None of it was acted, and all the anecdotes are true. It happens as a sort of “stream of thought” so that the audience can hear and feel what we each went through at that very moment. This was an important event for me to partake in as I felt like it brought me full circle in my experience here at Wheaton, and figuring out my own varied identities. Preparation was an intensive process, and we barely had a week to finalize our stories. Despite our nerves, we pulled off a great performance and basked in the overwhelming applause.
Here is a picture of the cast before the big performance!