Tangible Transition

Transition has been a major theme of this column—much as it is in my life—and now, more noticeably than ever, that feeling of transition is displaying itself in very tangible forms.

This past week, I received several e-mails from the University of Kansas alerting me that I can begin to sign up for clubs and intramural sports. The list of activities that I can do is extremely long, and I will need to begin sorting through my options to see what will define my extracurricular lifestyle next year.

I already have my sights set on the club baseball team, and I imagine I will also participate in as many intramural sports as I can—although I haven’t gotten around to surveying my prospects quite yet.

I have scheduled my orientation trip for mid- July and can soon start really considering my options for what classes I will be taking to kick off my college journey. While at orientation, I hope to meet my counselor at the Honor’s college and make sure that I can put myself in an opportunity to get jobs, receive information on events that I might enjoy and put myself into a position where I will be able to get all the help I want and need.

In a busy weekend, I was excited by a message that appeared in my Facebook inbox. I saw I had a message but didn’t think much of it as I have been getting frequent messages about “Assassins” (a hybrid game of tag and Clue that is popular among Hopkins students) and updates regarding the group that I will be attending prom with (more to come on that subject in a future column).

When I did finally open up the message I was pleasantly surprised to have my first interaction with my roommate-to-be. The message was simple—“Hey, I think I am your roommate next year at KU"—but my intrigue was immense.

By clicking the link to his profile, I was able to see a photo of the person that I will be sharing a living space with for 8 months next year. I was able to make guesses as to what his personality might be like based on his basic information but am more interested in actually meeting him and finding out whether I will have a manageable living situation next year or a constant struggle to have things my way.

I am beginning to see the type of life I will be living several months from now and how different it will be from the way things are now. Getting a glimpse of the potential activities and people that I will be able to acquaint myself with has left me even more excited for the transition and change of that the end of this summer holds.

I have been given the opportunity to peek into the future a little bit and begin to plan for the fun I will be able to have rather than just worry about financial information, transcripts and test scores I can simply ponder the wonderful possibilities that my future holds.