Author: Chad Boltz

So you have been accepted and have decided to attend THE Furman University. Congrats! Give yourself a pat on the back. You certainly deserve it! You are probably super excited and posting your acceptance letter on Instagram and Twitter with #FurmanBound and the purple heart emoticon. Once that adrenaline dies down, you probably have a lot of questions on what is to come.

Once you sign your letter of intent, you will be getting an email from the wonderful Jessica Berkey. She is the Director of Student Activities and oversees the Furman Orientation Program (also she is an overall fantastic human being and you should follow her dog on Instagram @purty_gertie). Anyways, that email will give you a breakdown of Summer Orientation. It starts in June and there are several sessions that you can attend. Once you pick a date, sit back and relax and get pumped for Orientation.

Orientation is an overnight process; so make sure to bring an extra pack of clothes and your toiletries. You will arrive at Furman on your Orientation date and head to South Housing, If you have no clue where South Housing (SOHO) is, do not fret. There are 25+ O-Staffers planted around Furman to make sure you need to get where you need to be. Once you check in an O-Staffer will lead you to your temporary dorm and hand you a linen pack so you do not need to bring bedding from home. You will check in your stuff, meet your roommate (and before you ask, this will not be your roommate during the school year) and then head to your first session.

In your first session, you will meet your pair of super friendly O-Staffers that will lead you through your sessions. They are there to help you with whatever you need. During your session, you will be meeting a ton of cool new people, who may or may not be your best friends in your four years at Furman. No pressure, though, I did not meet some of my closest friends till mid-way through the Fall Semester. You will be learning a lot about Furman during these sessions. You will get to pick classes, understand how to graduate on time, learn where various resources are on campus and have a good time to make sure you feel comfortable at your Furman Home.

It is kind of a marathon for around 36 hours, but I know you can survive it.  If you have any questions, Summer Orientation is the perfect time for them. The whole point of the program is to get both you and your families comfortable with your transition to college. It can be difficult, but Furman definitely provides the tools to make sure you succeed. Oh! There is also Fall Orientation, but that is for another blog.

One of the most interesting General Education Requirements (GERs) is the Mind and Body GER. While there are a few classes to fulfill this requirement, most students end up taking Health and Wellness in the Health Sciences department. Furman Students describes this class as a more intensive physical fitness with a good helping of a general understanding of health sciences.

Let me tell you that this class scared the heck out of me. In middle school and high school, the mention of the PACER test would make my spine tingle. I am the complete opposite of a jock and by no means would I describe myself as “fit.” I imagined running up and down a track field while a very intimidating professor would scream that I was not doing the exercises correctly.

I had already begun to sweat as I entered my classroom. We hadn’t even started exercising! Thankfully, my fears subsided when I sat down at my desk. My professor wasn’t some intimidating, muscle bulging, jock but rather friendly and “realistically” fit. Even better the class syllabus was fun and engaging. We weren’t just going to be running and lifting weights, we were going to be doing Zumba, yoga, spin classes, and Pilates. All of these exercises seemed fun and engaging.

While I thought that this GER was going to be useless, it ended up benefitting me more than just from a health perspective. Yes, it made me a better eater and have a better understanding of the nutrition I was putting in my body, but it also taught me several important life skills. The one that stuck out the most was being content with your progress. While I did not expect to get washboard abs in the first couple of weeks, I definitely set some very loft goals at the start of the semester. Those goals were fine to have, but my professor encouraged smaller and obtainable goals leading up those more lofty goals.

At the end of the course, I did not feel more comfortable with the Physical Activity Center, but also with myself. The course is designed to cover a lot of different material that the student won’t stick with everything the course presents, but students take what fits with their lifestyles and allow their overall wellness to grow and allows them to be better Furman students.

I am sure by now you are tired of seeing a girl laughing at her textbook on the cover of every college brochure. When first applying to college, every single university made it look so easy. Like as soon as I entered the door I would have friends from all different backgrounds and that we would all be drinking organic coffee and becoming better people. And while yes, I have made lots of different friends from all kinds of backgrounds and we have sipped organic coffee and have become better people, it was not easy.

College is scary. Like really scary. You are dropped off at a new place, with new people, and are trying to work your butt off to make good grades. You have to balance being healthy, being academic, and being social and you are constantly juggling these three things all the time. What the brochure does not tell you, is that sometimes you mess up. Sometimes you really mess up. Some nights you have to pull an all-nighter and your sleep schedule is completely off for days. Sometimes you realize that you survived the day off the nutrition of snack food. College is crazy.

I remember my first few days, I felt particularly lonely at Furman. I did not have many friends, the academics were way harder than I expected, and it did not have a “home” feel. I was being a bit overdramatic and googled “Can you transfer out of college, the first week of college?” I was so scared that I did not even try to give Furman a chance. After sulking around, I realized I was in control of my narrative. If I was going to make friends, they were not just going to pop up in my room while I was watching Netflix. I had to make the move.

I started applying for anything and everything that I thought would be interesting. Greek life, music groups, student activity boards, orientation staff, I even looked into the culinary club. While some of these groups have some sort of application process and you will experience rejection. In order for there to be “yes’s,’ there is bound to be some “no’s”. You have to take these with a grain of salt, if you actually try and put effort into applying to these groups, you are bound to find one that loves you.Once you are a part of these groups whether it be the Residential Life Council, the Student Diversity Council, or even Club Table Tennis you start to feel at “home.”

My student groups are what keep me going at Furman. Life stuff pops up all the time. Whether it be a family tragedy, the unexpected flu, or a bad break up you are going to feel some sort of struggle in your college career. When these negative situations present themselves before you, it is much easier to deal with them with the help of a group. Your friends which soon become your second family at Furman really are the Furman Advantage with thriving at Furman.