I still remember my own introduction days at UCM. Holding on tight to my new UCM bag, reading through every flyer that was hidden in it, learning the seven steps of PBL by heart. At UCM, we had a three-day-long introduction period, going over everything from mock tutorials to how to use the vending machine in the common room. But nothing can prepare you for the real deal - finally entering into your first tutorial room, surrounded by newbies like yourself, and relics that decided to do the course later in their curriculum (according to the UCM system where you can choose which courses you want to do when).
By now, I am the relic. And not just the grandma of the group, I'm a literal relic as a fourth-year at UCM. In a way, we're like the survivors of a shipwreck - no one knows exactly why we're still there, but no one dares to ask either, whether out of fear or respect I do not know.
Now, at the start of the second period, this becomes more noticeable than ever as I am studying in University College Freiburg's reading room. As I explain on Zoom who I am and what semester I am in (is there even a box for 7?), a tour of first-years opens the door, sticking their heads inside the room and whispering to themselves, pointing at my emptied coffee mug and the pile of books surrounding me. "This will be us." I smile, trying not to scare them.
So, what does that mean? What is this this? It's having written so many papers that my friend and proofreader complimented them by saying that they are 'academically boring in the perfect way'. It's hearing one term and immediately thinking of ten different definitions and twenty case examples. It's naming my laptop because, if I'm being fair, I am spending more time with it than with my friends, taking it everywhere.
But it's equally opening new course materials and discovering things I didn't even know existed. It's constantly meeting people I've never met before, whether online or offline. And being closer on a moral level to those that have crawled into my heart. In a way, it's seeing studying less as an occupation but rather as a lifestyle.
Happy Period 2, everyone!
Jesler van Houdt