It’s now Monday the 7th, so we’re about two days into orientation week. So far everything is going really well! My pre-orientation trip was really fun. We had a pretty large group: 24 entering freshmen and around 7 leaders, but we got to know each other so much better as the week progressed. Everyone was incredibly nice and I still hang out with lots of the friends I made and we all say hi to everybody on the trip when we see them. I feel so much more settled on campus knowing that I already know a group of people. The trip itself was a combination of bonding and service work with TAP. The service work we did with TAP was eye-opening as well as fun. We split into smaller groups in the morning and worked with different TAP programs, then met back and talked about what we did before moving on to large-group activity or project. I got to work with HeadStart, and education program for the children of low-income families. Basically, I had 3-year-olds using me as a jungle gym for several hours. But I learned a lot about the lifestyles of some of the children and saw how the program helps them and their families with so many of the difficulties and decisions involved in raising a healthy, educated child. I would totally recommend a pre-o trip to everybody; it’s such a great way to meet people and to be exposed to an entirely new perspective on the lives of people who don’t have the advantages and privileges that I do.
That all sounded very formal and impersonal [even though the writing was bad 
] but really, go on a pre-o trip. It’s great. Hopefully I can put some pictures of our group up later. ok, bye for now!
