Vi’s View: Welcome Week 2.0

As I got ready to move back into my dorm in Kelly Quad at Stony Brook as a sophomore, I started reflecting on how different it was compared to my first year. In fact, I feel my experience can be simplified into one word: chaotic. And I mean that in both a good and a bad way.

Going into Welcome Week as a freshman, I was incredibly nervous about the fact that I was heading across the country for school. Would I make friends? What events do I have to go to? What events do I want to go to? Where are my classes? How do I pronounce Setauket? What is a Stop & Shop?

Everything that happened during Welcome Week last year has turned into a fuzzy gray area in my mind. The one thing I can definitely go into great detail about is the fact that I had three large suitcases worth of stuff still in California when I arrived at the John F. Kennedy International Airport because the wind that morning could not lift the plane carrying at least 70 checked-in suitcases. Those were fun times. (Side note: It took about three to four days for those missing suitcases to be delivered to me.)

One good thing about the chaos during my Welcome Week experience last year was that I learned what to do this year. I even managed to attend an event featuring a hypnotist this year, whereas last year, I didn’t really have the time to go to an event other than the required ones.. The best advice I can give if you want to attend a Welcome Week event: get there very early!

Welcome Week this year was like background noise to me. Oh yeah, there are cool events going around campus, but my priority was to meet up with friends that I didn’t see over the summer and survive the remaining summer heat without an air conditioner in my dorm room.

It was cool to see what Stony Brook offered this Welcome Week, but want to know what was even better? Not having a majority of your belongings on the other side of the country.