Arboreal

Welcome to a four-post series on my college experience. This is pure nostalgia, so don't read it if you aren't already bored.  Also, there will be a whole lot of lingo that only Dordt people will understand.  Anyways, let's start with freshman year...
When I arrived at Dordt, it was almost home to me by the second night.  Even though everything was new, I felt more comfortable there than anywhere else I could remember.  Maybe I'm exaggerating that, but maybe I'm not.

When I stumbled into my room with my possessions in two suitcases and a backpack, my roommate and I hit it off right away.  He was sitting at his computer shirtless: "You must be Andrew."   He was from a fictional place called Wisconsin, and he was smiling at me.  This would be a good year.

Dordt does a really good job of folding freshmen into the system. My PC leaders were joyfully welcoming- the volume of Shena's laugh helped with that.  I still hang out with her and the guy she would marry three years later.  Then there was Jander, who cares for everyone he meets, and he turned out to live on my wing.  I would look up to him until he graduated.

Our group had some good kids in it, too.  Kroll, the gangly local kid who I'd love and hate and love again, but mostly love.  Miriam, the cynical missionary kid from Africa (there was a probably a specific country or even city where she grew up, but more people knew where Africa was).  Curtis, the class clown who would disappear after one short year at Dordt.  Jacob, who is probably reading this over my shoulder as I write it- kid, you'll go far if you stop creeping into people's rooms.  And the others... we were all compatriots, because we had to put up with GEN 100 together.

North Hall was a good- no, the best- place to live.  It was rank at times, but it still smelled better than the foul mixture of chemical scents that filled the halls of East, where girls were. I took any and every opportunity to visit East and meet girls.  My only regret from that year is how many girls I hit on.  I chased ladies all year, and later I would see how foolish it is to ruin friendships because you think a girl is cute.  This is not what relationships are about!  I would not talk to some of those girls again until senior year, when we would ruefully laugh at selves past.  When we were just kids.

Classes freshman year seemed lame.  It was hard to care about general classes that everyone had to take.  That will probably never change.  But I learned a little about work ethic, and I got into my first digital media class, and I was hooked.  Mark Volkers is a great professor because he isn't really a teacher.  He is good at teaching, but was not trained as such.  He actually makes films himself, and his passion for it is contagious.  It makes you want to tell stories that will change people's lives.

This probably isn't one of those stories, but come back soon to reminisce with me about sophomore year!