My True North Perspective

This year marks my senior year at Ohio Northern. All I can say is: Where did the time go? I can vividly remember being a freshman and now here I am thinking to the future about big girl jobs and graduation. In addition to a new year has comes a new perspective, a perspective very different from freshman year. 

As a freshman, everything about being at ONU was exciting. There was always someone new to hang out with and something new to do. The magic of late night White Bear runs and the thrill of talking to cute college guys never got old. There was a new club/group meeting to attend each evening, and upperclassmen who seemed like the coolest people in the world. 

I look back at freshman year with extreme fondness and nostalgia. I don’t regret a thing about my experience as a freshman; however it is weird to think about how I felt starting my year at Northern then and how I feel now.

This year the excitement is gone. As always, I am pumped to be back on campus but something is different.  I feel as if I simply picked up where I left off. The smell of each building is ever familiar, friendships that were put on pause for three months feel natural again and I suddenly fell into the grove of being a student once again. 

My friend group is firmly established, not to mention narrowed since freshman year, and instead of having questions about logistics of life at ONU I simply do things, like stopping by Human Resources or picking up books at the mail room, automatically. I am comfortable in my own skin in regards to who I am and where I am headed. Freshman year I didn’t even have a major: now I have two majors.

My professors are no longer strangers whose offices seem off limits. Unlike freshman year, I find myself stopping by their offices just to chat about life. Also, the beauty of walking into a class feeling like I actually know what I am doing instead of feeling like I don’t belong is liberating.

Most of the ways my perspective has changed from freshman to senior year are for the better. I have grown in areas where I didn’t even really know I needed growth. Freshman year I was giddy, overly excited about everything and confused about my major. 

The group of friends that I have been lucky enough to remain close to since the beginning of college tell me that I am not the same freshman Lauren they used to know. I am still the bubbly person I was three years ago, however I am stronger, more confident and focused than I ever thought I would be.

It’s weird to look back and think about my freshman self walking around campus; I can remember it so clearly. My years here at ONU have allowed me to grow and change. However, one thing that hasn’t changed is my love for my life at Northern. Even on most dreary rainy days in Ada, I am blessed to live, laugh and learn here! Freshman or senior, I will always be a proud polar bear.