Junior Still Seeking Closure on Freshman Year

During the 2020 spring semester, students were sent home from Texas A&M University out of concern for their safety amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving many in the class of 2023 with the feeling that they never truly finished their freshman year. Because these students never experienced a full year on campus, current juniors are still seeking closure on the loss of their freshman year.

Mugdown staff interviewed junior Kate Reddy about the process of accepting that she can never again be the scared, inexperienced freshman she was in 2020. “I just feel like there will always be something missing when I reflect on my time in college,” said Reddy. “I know everyone says freshman year sucks, but that’s something I wanted to find out on my own.”

When speaking about how she hopes to let go, Reddy shared some of the things that make it hard to move on. “Every time I walk through northside, I stand outside my old dorm and just imagine myself continually filling up my roommates’ Brita. Sometimes the smells of Sbisa still bring me back to those simpler times.”

This group of students will never know what it is like to have a normal freshman experience, from dorm room move-out to the final days confined to eating on campus. However, the class of 2023 continues in their search to move on and accept that they are upperclassmen at a school with what might as well be made of three classes of freshmen.

 

— Hannibal Lechner