R.E.A.L. Talk: New beginnings

In my first semester at Tufts, I joined about ten other R.E.A.L. students on campus for our version of orientation. We sat down and had dinner with each other and introduced ourselves. I was amazed at the diversity in a group as small as we were. People from all over the country and all over the world sat in the same room as me, starting their lives at Tufts.

As part of the orientation, current students are asked to give words of wisdom to the new students. I expected something like “Study hard!” By the end of the their speeches, I was terrified. I heard story after story about how hard it was and the struggles that came with balancing life and school. I kept waiting for someone to walk into the room and explain to me that there was a mistake and I didn’t belong. I kept thinking I wasn’t good enough for Tufts.

I wasn’t the only one. In the first semester, R.E.A.L. students attend a seminar every week to help us adjust to our new life. We talked about our doubt and fears. We talked about what was going well and best practices for studying. We used that seminar as an anchor to a world where we were good enough. We were doing just as well as everyone else in our group. We had nothing to worry about.

Our first semester wasn’t about doing well. It was about survival. We could survive as a group, but we needed to rely on each other. The seminar kept us together and gave us the freedom to support each other. It also gave us a place to ask for help. For some of us, asking for help is the hardest thing we have ever had to do.

There will always be a special bond among a group of R.E.A.L. students that start in the same semester. You are there for each other at the worst possible part of your Tufts career, and that is something that you cannot forget. The people who told you to keep going and not to quit, even though you hated everything. The people who studied with you for a class they weren’t even taking. The people who showed you there was a better way and a light at the end of the tunnel. Those are the people who make the R.E.A.L. program what it is. R.E.A.L. students supporting each other is the reason that so many of us make it to the second semester, the third and eventually graduation.

Thank you to the R.E.A.L. students who started with me and kept me from quitting. Thank you to the R.E.A.L. students who scared me with your stories at orientation, because you were right. Thank you to the administrators and the professors for supporting the R.E.A.L. students in and out of the classroom. And thank you to the traditional students at Tufts for helping us study for exams and everything else we forgot about from college. Without all of you, the R.E.A.L. program would not be possible.