Firsts at Warren Wilson College
As I move forward so will this blog. I will now try to reflect and share my experiences of college life. I am enrolled, and living on campus, at Warren Wilson College, of Asheville, NC. The college has a triad perspective to college life: academics, work, and service.
I’m here now, turning towards the end of the third week here; my second school week. I am more than happy in my new community. I know that, in any new community, it takes time to truly become apart of that community. However, I feel so at home here. There is so much community, and I feel that everywhere I turn there are new and interesting people. What a wonderful place to have four years of higher education!
For the most part I am happy with my classes, they all are interesting subjects to me. I’m taking the following classes: Lifestyles of Nonviolence, What Work Is (my freshman seminar), Intro to Philosophy, and Intro to Lit. and Cultures. All are pretty heavy on reading and writing; which I’m not complaining about, it’s just a fact. At least none of it is really text book reading, it’s all interesting and engaging.
I’ve been playing Ultimate Frisbee every Tuesday and Thursday, which has been a lot of fun. I plan on playing on the club team, which seems like a great group of people and a fun time. I’ve also enjoyed going Contra dancing on Thursday nights; it’s a great why to get to know people.
Going into Asheville on Friday night has also become a bit of a tradition. Asheville has a public drum circle on Friday nights that is a lot of fun. It’s a great why to get out of our “bubble” at least once a week.
Work: Part of being in the Warren Wilson community is working. There is minimal staff on campus, and the students are to do most of the labor. Freshman are put on a job and as you move along with your college years you have more of a say in what your work crew is. I was placed on the Public Safety work crew.
Public Safety is pretty much what it sounds like; we are to take care of the public safety of those who are on campus. However, the job is not quite as exciting as it sounds. I do get a walkie-talkie and use the master-set of keys! Mostly it consists of sitting in a very small room with five chairs and a table and doing homework. The hours are long, seven-hour shifts, but this means we only have to work twice a week. Once and a while the phone will ring; someone asking for a transfer or other random tid bits. On the weeknight shifts we get to go out three time for lock-ups; which consists of locking up all the buildings on campus. As of yet, this is a very time consuming job because none of the keys are marked. If we want to lock a door we must try every key.
The up side to this job is I can get a lot of homework done. I love it for that reason. Oh, and keeping the campus safe of course!
Those are my firsts at Wilson so far. So far I think it’s a great place to come and learn and be yourself. Smile and breathe fresh air.
