Crunch time

December is here already, and the buildings and grounds crew are slowly winterizing the campus. The water in the Iris Fountain has been turned off, the last of the leaves are being removed, and truckloads or purple rock salt are arriving. Coming back to campus from Thanksgiving break is always hard, with Christmas just around the corner everyone wants to stay home with family, go Christmas shopping, buy Christmas trees, and decorate for the holidays, but instead we have to force ourselves to stay focused for these last 3 weeks on campus before Christmas break. Luckily, these last couple of days have made coming back to school for finals easier than in past years. On Monday right after break, I hosted a prospective freshman for an overnight program. After my classes, I headed to the Hamilton Admissions Office and met Melissa and her father who were visiting Elmira College from Long Island. Once they were done with their tour of the campus and an interview, I took them both to Mackenzie's for dinner. After dinner, her father left for his hotel for the night and I took Melissa to my room in Meier to show her around and drop off her things. Then, I contacted a bunch of my friends that live in different dorms throughout campus so Melissa could see almost every dorm on campus and the different room layouts and dorm personalities. Afterwards, we went to Mackenzie's and went bowling at the four lane bowling alley on campus that is free for students. We grabbed some vanilla ice cream and met one of my friends at the information desk on our way out who said he was attending a Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) meeting in a few minutes and invited us to join him. Since Melissa is interested in pursuing Business Administration as a major, I thought sitting in on a business club might be a good experience for her, so we headed downstairs for the SIFE meeting. Following the meeting, we headed back to the room for the night and talked to my friends and roommate about school and student life and high school drama for a while before we turned on the movie Friends with Benefits to fall asleep to. Tuesday morning at 8:15 am. I brought Melissa to my Market Research class so she could see what a typical upper level college business class was like. We grabbed some breakfast at the campus center during our brief, five minute break from class and grabbed some coffee at 9:45 am. on our way to her Strategic Management class she was scheduled for at 9:55 am. I picked her up at 11:30 am. and we went back to Mackenzie's for some lunch before heading back to Hamilton Hall to meet up with her dad and prepare for the long ride home. This was my first time as an overnight host, but it was a lot of fun and I hope I will get a chance to do it again soon. It feels good knowing that I was able to help someone else make one of the most important decisions of their life. I know when I was a senior in high school, I could use all the help I could get, and I'm glad that I was able to help Melissa decide if Elmira College was right for her. If nothing else, I was able to hang out with someone I otherwise would have never met and made a new friend. I wish Melissa, and all the other high school seniors good luck with their final year of high school, and my advice to them is to relax and let things fall into place. I visited 4 colleges, all of which I hated before I found Elmira, and I let myself get very stressed out about it, thinking that there was no right college for me. Once you find the right college, you'll know right away.