GOING AWAY TO COLLEGE

By JOANN JONES
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
he photo albums and picture frames of friends and family are carefully packed. The favorite teddy bear is ready to go.
The serious talk with the boyfriend about staying together while at different colleges is over.
And the college's mandatory summer reading assignment, "The Sparrow" by Mary Doria Russell, is finished.
Now Mount Union College soon-to-be freshman Taylor Woods is ready, looking forward to meeting new people and making decisions that will affect the rest of her life. It's a new beginning for her and thousands of other area young adults as they leave home to move into dorms for their first semester of college.
"I want to get in the swing of things," Woods said about her first-semester goals. "I have to discover what my study habits are."
Shopping
Calling herself a "home girl," she said she's a bit anxious, not knowing what to expect when she gets to Mount Union. She's prepared as much as possible by getting to know her roommate, a teammate on her summer softball team, and holding an 8 to 5, five-days-a-week summer job so that she can buy all the new things she needs to furnish her room.
"School shopping was different this year," she said. "I spent more money and bought more supplies than clothing. I really have all new everything."
Woods said she and her roommate, who lives in Mantua, talked about everything they would need to furnish their room, with Woods bringing a refrigerator and television and her roommate supplying a microwave and DVD player.
Ryan Burd, a freshman at Youngstown State University, said his shopping trips were more expensive, too. "I bought a new computer and bought bedding," he said. "I prepared not for going to school, but for living on my own." Burd also moves into his dorm this weekend and starts classes Aug. 25.
However, he doesn't know his sophomore roommate at all and has talked to him only once on the phone. "When I talked to him, he seemed pretty quiet, but he said he had everything we would need except a phone, so that's what I'll buy. I'm also buying my own small refrigerator so we don't get our food and drinks mixed up."
It was difficult, though, trying to figure out what he really needed to take and separating that from everything he wanted to take. "If I took everything I wanted, all of a sudden, I'd have to be sleeping out in the hallway."
Big step
Also a freshman headed to YSU, Jamie Bica she's been eager to take the next big step in her life. "I was ready to go the day after I graduated," said the 18-year-old who plans to pursue a degree in early childhood education.
Like Woods, she has already met her roommate, who is from Canton, and they attended a concert together this summer. Her roommate is bringing carpet for the tile floors and a futon, so the girls had to decide how to make the best of their space.
"During orientation Aug. 5, we went to our dorm and got to see the rooms." Bica said. "Ours is a little bigger than my bedroom at home, but not really that big."
YSU's orientation was a big help to both Burd and Bica. Burd liked that he could choose from three different sessions and that there was a separate session for parents. Bica liked what she learned about YSU.
"They [upperclassmen] did skits to make students feel more comfortable," Bica said. "The campus police talked to us about the security, telling us there were 160 patrols on and around campus."
Responsibilities
Each of the three said they worried about being on their own, accepting more responsibility, and establishing good study habits.
"I'm worried about how much more difficult it's going to be," Burd said. "I won't have my parents telling me to study. Am I going to be disciplined enough to study as much as I have to, especially when I want to go out and have a little more fun than I did in high school?"
Burd said his father looks forward to him moving on to this next phase of his life, but his mother said she'll miss watching him at all the activities in which he used to participate. Burd said he, too, will miss participating in sports, as well as leaving behind his little brother who's also a freshman, but in high school. He plans to use his new computer to keep in touch.
Woods said accepting responsibility meant acting older, too, so she bought "older-looking" clothing and styled her hair differently. She said she felt that she and her boyfriend, a freshman at Mercyhurst College in Erie, Pa., had made a responsible decision in agreeing to stay together, but not hold one another back from enjoying the college experience.
"He said if we were meant to be together, we would be," Woods said. "We're not going to keep one another from meeting new people and having fun."
Bica, who said she is "the baby of the family," said her parents are nervous and anxious for her, and her mom has even cried a couple times.
"But they're telling me studying is now like a full-time job," she said. "My dad says if I do well and get the job I want, the rest of my life will be happy. Since I'll be on my own, I have to do the right things and set my priorities straight for that to happen."
"It'll be different having professors instead of just teachers, adjusting to a roommate, and getting up for an 8 o'clock class on my own," she added. "But I'm ready."