Orientation Day

Orientation Day

Good Day Introverts, Reserved ones and All Visitors,

Today I want to talk about a new experience that I just had, college orientation. Several of us incoming university freshman came around nine o’ clock on Saturday morning to get to know one another. At first it was awkward as are many new beginnings for everyone. I got there early in hopes of getting my student ID, but instead the university made everyone wait until the end of the event. When I first got there, I had to wait outside the door because it was so early. The iota of students that were present were standing in circles. Then we had to sit at nearby tables. When the doors finally opened, everyone filed in around the many tables that were in the large room. There were about eleven chairs at each table. At my table there were two groups of three that knew each other from high school. In the center of the front of the table sat a smiling, bubbly, facilitator. He kept the conversation going by asking several questions about everyone’s majors and home towns. Every time one facilitator left, another came in his/her place. After that the event officially started. It was packed with icebreakers and relevant discussion about what to expect once we move in. Icebreakers included a game of ultimate rock paper scissors in which the entire room participated (it’s a much shorter process than it seems), and a discussion line. The discussion line was first. During this icebreaker, we had to get into two lines and talk to the person directly in front of us for a certain amount of time, then move to the left and talk to that person. Surprisingly, this was fun. The good thing about this exercise is that we were given topics. It was interesting to learn about people whom I’ve never met and hold conversations with them. Socializing was actually fun. During ultimate rock, paper, scissors, we had to pick a partner, play a round of rock, paper, scissors, and whoever won from that round was the team leader and everyone else acted as an entourage and had to cheer that person on. It was fun actually, and I wasn’t the only reserved person there. Afterward, my mom told me that I seemed more confident about going to my university, and to tell the truth I am. I guess it was so much fun because I had been and am so looking forward to meeting new people and developing new, healthy relationships. I was speechless at first like I often am, but the icebreakers actually worked. What a genius idea, I mean I’ve done several ice breakers before, but these were different. They helped me come out of my shell even if it was only for a few minutes, it was still very significant to me. I thank God for giving me courage that day and every day that I was able to effectively express myself. There’s still a lot of things that I have to work on, but this showed me that I have it in me. We all have it in us, the ability to face the fears that try to tightly enclose us. It’s there.