Stacey Avnes

A Little Advice for Weekends:

    So its's quite obvious that there isn't much to do around Norwich. It resides in a quaint little town without the convienence of a mall or a movie theatre. One must drive to get to any source of viable entertainment. That being said, one is most often forced to stay on campus for the multitude of the weekend. 

    College provides a multitude of pressures, participating in certain illicit and illegal activities being one of them. When one gets so incredibly bored that they result to this kind of thing, bad things happen. I promise. Not that I know from personal experience, but I have seen and heard of many a people getting VAP'd (Violation of Alchohol Policy) or having to be escorted back to their dorms because they are so beligerant.  Although it may seem fun at the time, it's not worth whatever consequences come out of it...Whether it be the punishment, the sickness, or waking up in someone elses bed and not knowing exactly what happened the night before. It all just plain sucks. There are many other things that can fill your time, I think. They play a movie on campus every Friday and Saturday and then afterwards you can go to the Mill and shoot pool or hang out with people. It's unesscesary to cause yourself and others trouble because you wanted to alter your state of conciousness. Enough said.

And the adjustment period is over...

Ahhhh, you know the adjustment period is over when you refer to your dorm as "home".  It has been almost a month that I have been here and things are finally starting to reach a point of normalcy.... or at least the college version. I have joined several extracurriculars, gone to football games, volunteered (HIGHLY recommend), landed a work study job, driven golf carts, become sick from the college food, pulled an all nighter, been sexiled, and the list could just go on and on. 

    I do not know how much I need to stress this but if you are going to be joining the Corps, you should also join ballroom dance. Not only is being able to waltz, tango, swing, rumba, salsa, and merengue a fabulous skill, but the first hour of Regimental Ball is ballroom dance. You don't want to sit around with your date doing nothing and then see her be whisked away by a suave rook in dress blues who does know how to dance, do you? The answer is NO. PLUS, the girls really like guys who can ballroom dance or attempt to... HINT HINT. 

    ALSO, make sure to take advantage of the planning sheets you are going to get during orientation week. There would have been times that I would have forgotten that I had a class, choir rehearsal, or work study if I didn't have my sheet right near me to remind me of the many other things I have to do. 

    Be careful of what you eat as well. In the beginning I did so well that I actually lost about five pounds. However, once you realize how many option you have, you realize how much you put on your tray and then how much you eat plus the ice-cream machine (personal weakness). I have thus gained back those five pounds... But I refuse to gain the Freshman 15. That equals BAD. 

   Short and Sweet Version:  I really like it here. It feels right. 

At the beginning...

    These first few weeks have seriously flown by at a rate I am not at all comfortable with. Everything I have done from getting off the plane, to orientation week and starting my classes has been a whirlwind of excitement albeit challenging. 

    I am not going to lie, leaving home was extremely challenging. Coming all the way from Los Angeles, California to Northfield, Vermont is a giant culture shock. Although I love it here, the lingo and colloquialisms are something I will definitely have to get used to... and everyone here will have to get used to my jargon as well. HAHA. Ever since I have arrived I have missed my mom and my dog terribly but I know in time this will pass and I will finally adjust to living here. Moving in was a lot of fun however. I felt as if I was finally an adult asserting my independence, as I decorated my own side of the room. 

    Orientation week was an absolute BLAST. My groups orientation leader, Anaeto, is actually a member of the Corps but wanted to do civilian orientation-- so it provided a different experience for my group entirely. After a week full of fun activities, getting-to-know-you type events, mixers, dances, and seminars I had found my group of friends within my orientation group which then branched out to include others, like my roommate Jazzy. Being a civilian here, I certainly thought that I was not going to make friends with a lot of the Corps students based on the things I have heard about how they hate civis, don't like to associate with them blah blah blah. This I found was not true. Sure, it took me a while to meet them, but through orientation mixers, other friends, and my classes I have not only mingled with a few but have become close to some as well. Friendships come fast here at Norwich. Within the first couple of days I was here I had intermingled into several different groups of people between just civis, football players, swimmers, and some other upperclassmen. 

    Speaking of classes, it is a lot easier than I expected. My major is Communications, which needless to say is not one of the harder majors here on campus. When I realized how paltry and relatively simple my schedule was, I attempted to add another major or minor but my advisor told me this was, well, unadvisable until next semester when I was used to the school and so I could enjoy the first semester with relatively no deathly hard work. My math class is the most challenging out of the four I am taking, but that is to be expected.

    Last night I went to my first Ballroom Dance Club meeting and it was tooooooons of fun! I love to dance and learning it for a purpose (Regimental Ball is in a month and a half) makes it meaningful as well. I met a lot of people, some who I had seen around campus or had talked to on Facebook and others I had never seen before. Both guys and girls would definitely benefit from this club!

FOR GIRLS ONLY: So, as well all know Norwich is lacking in their female population. I knew coming in that I was probably going to get more attention from the opposite sex than I was used to. And BOY ( no pun intended) was  I right! Guys will practically jump on you here for you to notice them. Besides getting very obviously checked-out (we all know the up-down look); there is the cat-calling and the very obvious flirtationing. For example, today I was sitting at a table in the chow hall doing some homework before class and guy came and sat next to me and asked what I was doing. After I explained to him that I was doing homework he said that he should be my homework. I proceeded to ask if he meant for me to study him. He said yes and so I then asked if that was his cheap way of hitting on a girl. He also said yes to that question. This kind of thing is not uncommon here. It happens all the time. There are the nice guys who will just tell you that they think you are "wicked pretty" and that is that but you have to watch out for the crass and completely crude ones as well. 

 

Introductions, Introductions

    Hello, my name is Stacey Avnes and I am proudly going to be a civilian at Norwich University starting in the fall. People here in California say that I am "weird". Yes, I admit, I am certainly not of the normal "California Girl" variety. I am not blond nor tan, neither skinny nor conventionally pretty. I am different. I have a long brown mane of curly frizz and curvy hips, as pale as they come and diagnosed allergic to the sun. I don't enjoy shopping at Urban, or spending sixty dollars on a shirt. I wear hand-me downs from my Mom, my mom's friends, my friends, and people I do not know. I don't go to "ragers" or "kickbacks", but I do help my troop host weekend Girl Scout camps for first to fifth graders, compete in backpacking competitions, and write essays in my spare time. I sing and dance in the halls when I know people are both looking and listening. I have decided I do not need to filter my mind. I say what I feel, when I feel the need to say it and I do that all the time since I never stop talking.

    As I fumbled through the Collegeboard website in the summer of 2011, I came across a university called Norwich that I had never heard of and in a place I had never been to. I began to do more research and found that it had a unique learning environment. Not only was it a military college of distinguishable merit, but a civilian college as well. What really struck me as interesting was that the classes were intermixed with those who were in the Corps of Cadets and those who chose the civilian lifestyle. I applied to the college in August as to waive the application fee and was accepted in October of that year. As I applied to other colleges I put the idea of going there on the backburner in my mind. I have to be honest in saying that as I started to receive acceptances to other colleges and universities, the idea of going to Norwich was fading. Did I really want to go to a college with such a structured learning environment as opposed to the normal college experience? Did I want to live in a place for four years somewhat secluded from the city life I had been accustomed to my entire life? It wasn’t until I visited Norwich in April of 2012 that I decided I wanted to go there. The architecture of the buildings was beautiful. I had never seen colonial style done on such a remarkable scale. The students were kind and all encompassing. Within the first day I was there I made many friends and had met many more people. I attended a Ballroom dancing club meeting which was purely divine and ate at the Chow Hall which had food that I dare say was better than what I receive at home. By the time I boarded the plane to go home, I knew that is where I wanted to go.

            When I arrive at Norwich, I know that I  already have friends. Besides talking to people on social-networking sights, the students at Norwich are so respectful, understanding, and amiable it will not be a problem to make friends. This is something I am definitely looking forward to.  I am also looking forward to joining extracurricular activities that I have never done before and learn skills that I would have never dreamed of learning. I am excited to sit next to the very people who will be serving the country in the future while I learn the principals of communications, poltical psychology or even mathematics in association with liberal arts. Most notably, I am just looking forward to just being there. For what I desire to experience will flood me in the next four years I am happily there.