Friday, August 24th, 2007: In a daze I wake up at five in the morning to say goodbye to my room, father, and brother. After hauling my last bag out to my car, I experience an odd sensation as I look back at my house and realize that I am really leaving for college. (Though having stayed up till two in the morning the night before doing last minute packing, my tired self cannot truly grasp that idea yet). All I know is that I am off to a brand new world called a university. I feel very excited, nervous, and a little sad. The three hour drive from Houston to Austin seems to drag on.
Like Alice, just as I begin to wonder when the ride (or fall) will end and begin to doze off—my mother and I see exit signs for UT on the freeway! The next few hours of move-in were extremely chaotic. I felt like the White Rabbit, late for an important date, as my mom and I raced up and down the stairs of my dorm carrying boxes away from my car in the half-hour unloading zone. But while I raced against an impending parking ticket, my dorm felt very deserted. I had expected move-in day to be crowded and overwhelming, but I only saw three people moving in at the same time as me. When Alice falls down the rabbit hole she at first finds Wonderland deserted. So too did I find my new college experience devoid of life. Of course, the emptiness of UT changed overnight and I embarked upon my own journey into wonderland as I met radically new people and learned how to navigate the college lifestyle.
Like Alice, just as I begin to wonder when the ride (or fall) will end and begin to doze off—my mother and I see exit signs for UT on the freeway! The next few hours of move-in were extremely chaotic. I felt like the White Rabbit, late for an important date, as my mom and I raced up and down the stairs of my dorm carrying boxes away from my car in the half-hour unloading zone. But while I raced against an impending parking ticket, my dorm felt very deserted. I had expected move-in day to be crowded and overwhelming, but I only saw three people moving in at the same time as me. When Alice falls down the rabbit hole she at first finds Wonderland deserted. So too did I find my new college experience devoid of life. Of course, the emptiness of UT changed overnight and I embarked upon my own journey into wonderland as I met radically new people and learned how to navigate the college lifestyle.
Alice asks, “What is the use of a book without pictures or conversations?” (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, 11). Indeed, I say, what is the purpose of college without people and conversations? For the couple days before classes started I decided that part of our purpose in college is to make new friends and learn from the conversations that result. From the new people and new experiences I find that learning from books is only half the education that college life offers. Once classes started, these people have been a great source of distraction for me. Just as Alice follows the white rabbit, I follow these new friends instead of studying
. There is always something to do or someone to hang out with- plenty of distractions from work. Perhaps I keep myself constantly busy to remove any homesickness. Shideler points out that we feel alienated on a college campus until we have “dwelt within its spaces long enough to begin to feel like home” (285). The people I have met here have definitely helped make my dorm feel like home. On the other hand, Alice cries herself a river of tears when she thinks of her home and her pets. Similarly, I sometimes am sad when I think about how I have not gotten the chance to honestly talk (when my parents are not around) to my younger brother who I used to be very close to.
(The animals in Wonderland,http://www.somewherein.net/blog/store/swialice_lg.jpg.jpg)Nevertheless, the crazy animals and objects Alice encounter remind me of my chaotic experiences here at UT. I have become so used to constantly having distractions from work and having odd things happen it seems “quite dull and stupid for life to go on in the common way” (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, 19). It is the mishaps of my college life that make it interesting . . . and stressful. Getting lost on a bus late at night was definitely an experience. And figuring out that I had not been assigned a TC for next semester was both interesting and stressful. After walking into the wrong classroom- twice- for my anthropology class I randomly started looking into classrooms in search of the face of someone I knew to be in the class. Desperately looking for the right classroom seems similar to Alice desperately eating various foods to find a good size. Or maybe it is similar to searching for an identity. All the same, I have noticed that taking the middle road and compromising goes far here at UT. Leaving the rabbit-hole, Alice is forced to take the middle door. So too have I been “forced” to take the middle way! Late to class one day I found that cutting through a courtyard and small gym on the way to the RLM building saves about ten minutes of walking. And, I was able to enroll in a TC class for next semester by taking the middle road of signing up for my not-first-choice.
(Alice growing and growing, http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/c/carroll/lewis/alice/images/alice11a.gif)Encountering all these new situations also brings up the issue of regret and time management. When Alice drinks the potion that makes her grow larger, she wishes she hadn’t taken so much, but “alas! It was too late to wish that! She went on growing, and growing [. . .]” (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, 37). Alice then must fit herself uncomfortably through and window and chimney. Oftentimes I wish I had done an assignment the day before so that I would have time to do other things. After a while all the work piles up, and ….it grows and grows until its too late, and I must make myself uncomfortable as I work late into the night. Alice’s experience when she goes through the looking glass is also similar to the way I must manage my time in college. As the Red Queen preaches, “it takes all the running you can do to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run twice as fast as that!” (Through the Looking-Glass, 165). Likewise, if I want to succeed in my grades or be able to participate in activities here at UT I have to work twice as hard. Simply putting forth the minimal effort I have found will only let me scrape by with a “B” or a forgotten meeting time. And, I have learned that wallowing in a bad grade or failure will not get me anywhere. "You won't make yourself a bit realler by crying," Tweedledee remarked: "there's nothing to cry about" (Through the Looking Glass, 189). Tweedledee is correct in that we must learn from our mistakes and move on rather than dwell on the negative.
In the end, though, especially dealing with classes and class scheduling I must keep trying and work around the system by calling and emailing people. Alice has to continue through each square to get to the queens position just as I will continue to trek across the campus of our university.
