Though there are a variety of places on campus that have changed since we arrived last week, the one I feel most compelled to describe is the hallway outside my dorm. The hallway may not be the most populated or social area, but despite how its physical appearance is identical to what it was on move in day, my perception of it could not be more different. When I arrived at Dickinson on Tuesday of last week, I was terrified. Not only was I at campus a day earlier than everyone else, but there were orientation assistants milling throughout the halls, and there was nothing I wanted more than to unpack as quickly as possible and slip into my dorm for the night. Now is the opposite.

The idea of socializing no longer makes me want to duck into my room; on the contrary, I’m itching to meet the rest of our freshman class and even upperclassmen. The hall outside my door does not remind me of moving related chaos, but of hallway dorm meetings, and its proximity to the place that I’m going to call home for the next nine months. I may not (and with good reason) spend as much time in it as I do in the cafeteria or on the fields, but it’s comforting to know that I’m friendly with just about every person in it, and that there’s at least one place on campus that isn’t new and daunting. It feels almost ridiculous to be analyzing a hallway in a manner as detailed as this one,  but my perception of it is constantly changing, and I can only hope I will grow as familiar with other places around campus as I do with the area outside my dorm. In the instance of this area, physical change is not nearly as significant as the flip-flopping of perspective and the emotions that come with such.