Thankful Thursday
With less than a week to go before Thanksgiving and not even a month remaining until the winter break, this feels like the perfect time to reflect on my first semester in college, before studying for exams takes over my life. I find it pretty amazing that what started as a nudging self-reminder to count my blessings, has transformed into a wonderful menagerie of first-semester Loyola memories.
Let’s start with Welcome Week. I am especially thankful for the Welcome Week Bike Ride because, it was there that I met one of my best friends right now. Our friendship started when we happened to notice that we were the only two participants wearing jeans shorts—I know that’s probably the most random reason in the world to become friends. So, I give thanks for serendipity.
The Loyola 360 Retreat is another memory featured in my collection of happy thoughts. Not only did this leadership-building and group reflection program allow me to take advantage of Loyola’s unique Ecology Campus—plus, enjoy the world’s most delicious chocolate chip cookies—but, while there, I also built a number of friendships that have since grown stronger and that have become a rewarding part of my life here. So, I give thanks for Jesuit educational values.
I am awfully fortunate to be blessed with such a caring and enthusiastic RA as well as a cheerful and passionate PA (for my UNIV 101 class). Without a doubt, being surrounded by supportive individuals, especially peer role models, has helped shape my brief, yet meaningful, time here at Loyola in many positive ways. I am also grateful for my roommate. In the simplest of terms, she is thoughtful, considerate and good-natured. Maybe that sounds cliché, but those are coveted qualities when you have to share one tiny room with a person you’ve never before met. She and I participated in the 5k Chicago AIDS run in September. While we are different in many ways, I could not have wished for a better “first college roommate.” So, I give thanks for camaraderie.
Of course, my first-semester memories will always be filled with gratitude for the ‘friendly strangers’ who were there in the very beginning. I got to meet some of the university’s most actively involved upperclassmen, all serving and working in myriad ways to help make newcomers feel taken care of. Here are only a few of the many individuals for whom I will give thanks this weekend: The ‘movers’ and RA’s whose energetic enthusiasm made me feel instantly at home; the awesome IT help desk team, aka, emergency room doctors for your laptop, one of whom happily offered me advice about the Loyola’s dual degree programs; and, last but far from least, the bubbly sophomore who reached out to me at Orientation, not only because she warned me to throw fashion out the window and get myself with an ankle-length coat, but because she is one heck of a Zumba teacher. In the spirit of Thanksgiving all year round, heaven bless all the wonderful people who have given me so much to be thankful for this year.
Overall, I am exceedingly grateful to have had the opportunity to take advantage of so many activities that Loyola offers, like attending the President’s Ball, joining the student ambassador program, participating in off-campus retreats, and much more. As the wintry weather warns me to get ready for my first Chicago deep freeze, I am glad Thanksgiving was on the calendar this week, obliging me to stop for a moment to reminisce. Now, despite knowing finals are lurking just around the corner, I am eagerly looking forward to an even better next semester.