Trey Vanderstappen
Biological Sciences, Freshman
My corn-filled home town of 6000 people feels absurdly different from Chicago. While my overly protective mom might argue the difference is the crime rate, I perceive it being the interactions you have with others. Back home, it would be rude not to exchange a small, “Hey there!” or a pleasant nod to someone you walk by. Here in Chicago, it is much less personal. I feel I am essentially ignoring the people I walk by, and I am someone who absolutely adores those little interactions with strangers. It may seem like a silly thing to any Chicago local, but I have really struggled with this feeling during my first few weeks.
In terms of coursework, it has not been too overwhelming. Sure, I have had to stay up much later on some school nights than I had in high school. I must admit, most of these nights could have been avoided if I was not such a horrible procrastinator on weekends. For finals, while still as stressful as high school, things could have been much worse if I did not get the help I did from the S.I. program or the teaching assistants. This ties in to one of the things I am quite grateful college offers over high school, assistance. The amount of programs, mentors, or advisors I can fall back upon for help is overwhelming in itself. Whether I am struggling with a particular topic in class, drowning in stress over finals, or deciding upon a new major, I have a lot of people I can depend upon. While I do not use them as much as I should, it is comforting to know how many backup resources I can go to when I feel the need for assistance.
In addition to the overload of homework, people often told me college involved professors who do not care whether you fail or not. This, I must attest is false. The professors care about you and your grades if you demonstrate you care about them yourself. For instance, my Religious Worldview professor assigned me a four page essay one week before it was due, and me being the lovely person I am, I managed to save this essay until the night before. After working late into the morning, I just managed to print it out before running to class. Purely as an apology, I talked with the professor after class about how underwhelming my rushed essay might be. She was very kind and reassuring about the whole assignment, even giving me two more days to work on it. In another kind occurrence, my general chemistry professor sacrificed her time from a meeting to discuss theoretical physics with me. It is kind and genuine gestures like these that make my time here at college much more bearable.
As rewarding as the schoolwork has been for me, the added workload of being a Biological Sciences major initially prevented me from joining a club and made it harder for me to find friends. I have always found myself to be an introvert, and the best way I managed to make friends in high school was through extra-curricular activities. In high school, I invested an immense amount of time into drama club, working both behind the scenes and on stage. Over the course of four years, that theatre club grew into being a full-fledged family for me and I miss everyone in it dearly.
While college at DePaul University cannot provide me with the same theatre family, I am trying my best to create one for myself. Like I mentioned, not having a club to go to afterschool made it tough for me to make friends over the fall quarter, and only now am I finally getting around to joining one. So far, I am making my way into The DeFrag, DePaul’s gaming club. While the first event I went to was as awkward for me as I expected, I know I will gain the confidence to be more social at the next few events and enjoy myself. In addition to DeFrag, I intend on joining a theatre club, hoping to rebuild the family I had before.
Despite the struggles I am facing in this transition to college and independent life, I am very much looking forward to what rests in the next few years. I am confident I will get better at managing my time, and I know I will remake that group of friends I once had. After all, I am only a third of the way through my freshman year, so there is bound to be plenty of change and development waiting for me ahead.
Trey and his parents on move-in day.