Dear Freshco…

An Open Letter to Freshman College Summer Experience at The University of Georgia

Carah Jones
Jul 25, 2017 · 5 min read
Home for the summer

FreshCo, thank you for giving me a summer full of study time rather than tan time. During my first weeks in Athens, I’ll admit I was kind of upset that I wasn’t at the beach for my summer vacation, but my mindset changed quickly as I began to fall in love with my life as a student here. Before I moved to Athens, people would often ask me why in the world I would sign up for college classes over the summer before my freshman year had even started. I would always answer with, “Why in the world would I not?”

This is experience has been nothing short of insane, in all of the good ways and definitely in all of the bad ways. From the very first Friday night out in Athens, meeting new people that were nothing like me, to ending the last Monday night after finals with a couple of my best friends, these past 5 weeks are now permanently apart of my dearest memories, and they will forever hold a special place in my heart. With that being said, FreshCo definitely deserves a few thank you’s.

Thank you, FreshCo, for giving me a couple of new life long friends. I never thought the people I would meet in my orientation group, or in my super entertaining Western Civilization class would become some of my favorite people ever. People I literally met standing in line during our exclusive lunches at Joe Frank are now people I depend on to help me get through whatever mid-life crisis I might be facing at any given day. (It happens more than you’d think.) The friends I have made during this month are without a doubt the best, and I am so happy that FreshCo let me get to them before the rest of our 2021 class here at UGA did.

Ps, thank you FreshCo for making all the Pauley’s dates possible.

Thank you, FreshCo, for assigning me the hardest class in the world and no, I am not exaggerating. Okay, everyone told me this school would be hard. I never doubted them when they said it, BUT I figured at least FreshCo would be slightly less challenging than what I expected to be facing in the fall. I truly thought that this program would be a carefree time to have as much fun as possible. Then I looked at an email from my advisor telling me that I had to take Western Civilization. Every day, I would have to wake up early enough to be at Leconte Hall at 9:15 in the morning, and listen to a history professor talk about Europe for two hours. It goes without saying that this class was absolutely the hardest thing I have ever had to accomplish academically, and the fact that it was all jammed into 4 weeks made it that much worse. I had never experienced a true academic challenge in high school, and God obviously has a sense of humor because my first class at college was just that, a true academic challenge.

These four stressful and challenging weeks have made me realize how capable I am of doing whatever I set my mind to, and that is why I am actually thanking FreshCo for assigning me this class. I sat in my room by myself on nights when all of my friends were out. I stayed up until morning hours studying, then packed up my books and went back to class to take more notes on another 2 hour lecture. 2 papers, a midterm and a final later, I came out of the class with an A and newfound confidence in myself and my academic capabilities, and I ended up thoroughly enjoying the class.

Thank you, Freshco, for requiring me to do community service. Helping out with Habitat for Humanity was actually a very cool experience. As imaginable, me and the two girls that rode with me to the project site the first week were not looking forward to working outside for two hours. It was mid afternoon, extremely hot, and we were already so busy with our other class requirements that we felt as if we did not have time to work on houses. That first day, the job assigned to us was staining wood. It was so typical for them to assign the job of staining wood to the girls, but I suppose it did need to be done. I still remember how relaxing it was to dip a brush into the dark mixture, and watch it seep into the crevices of the wood, dripping down and transforming the look of plywood entirely. Not only were these two hours dedicated to relaxation, but also to serious stress relief. After wood staining came plant chopping. And for those who could hang with the serious labor, came the job of taking down thick tree branches. And guess what?

We got to use power tools.

Building a porch with Habitat

By the end of those four weeks, the girls that first rode with me became two of my best friends, the houses that we worked on were transformed into homes, and the two hours that we thought would be wasted became two hours we got to spend outside of the classroom, releasing energy and providing shelter for other people.

So here’s to FreshCo; to the late nights of studying as well as the late nights of music concerts in the dorm with some really awesome people. To the amazing Building 1516, to Banana Flip smoothies, to feeling as cool as the athletes for one summer, and to whatever the heck else happened during this past month. To the rest of the Class of ’21, please just respect that there are 275 people in your class that already know their way around and are honestly just a lot cooler than you are.

FreshCo, thanks for a helluva start to my freshman year. Go Dawgs.

Commit to Serve

2017 UGA Freshman College — Service Learning

Carah Jones

Written by

Commit to Serve

2017 UGA Freshman College — Service Learning

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