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    Le Moyne, Reilley Hall Quad

    February 18, 2016

    No Place Like Home, No Place Like The Heights

    So, you’re thinking of becoming a Le Moyne College Dolphin? Well, might I just extend a personal welcome! Welcome to what will be four incredible years on your turbulent and triumphant crawl towards adulthood [that is what we’re all doing here, right?].

     

    Now, let’s just get right to it. I am not going to tell you that these next four years are going to be the best of your life — I hope they’re great, but I hope they prepare your for an even greater life and adventure that you cannot even fathom right now — and I am not going to tell you that they’ll be easy either. Even if you study three hours for every one hour of class you sit through; and even if you go to every class and every office hour or study session your professors hold; and even if you join the coolest clubs on campus [shout out to the English Club and Le Moyne Dolphin Steppers]; and make the best friends along the way, I will not tell you it will be easy. Because it won’t be and you are not at home anymore.

     

    I hope that Le Moyne soon comes to feel like a home-away-from-home for you, but it simply will never be your home. You know, the place you first learned to ride a bike or the place where your mom locked you out of the house on hot summer days because she was sick of you and your brothers running through the tiny clumps of dirt and dust she swept into neat piles. You see, Le Moyne will never be the place where you are void of the responsibility of taking care of yourself, of holding yourself accountable for your work and your actions and your choices. You will face hardships you never thought you would, and only you will be able to take responsibility for them and then get up and shake yourself off . . . and then move past them.

     

    I came to Le Moyne four years ago, traveling just about 1,000 miles from my home in Alabama. I knew absolutely no one — except for my poor aunt, Dr. Holly Rine, who I initially wanted no one to know I was related to. But look how far I’ve come, Aunt Holly! I had a great roommate and I met great friends in the Biology Learning Community, that for some reason still hang around me. I joined The English Club and I joined the Club Crew Team [#RowLMC]. I went to all of my classes and office hours and attended on campus events. And you know what? It still was not easy. I remember everyone kept telling me, “Soon this will feel like your home!” And I kept waiting and waiting for it to feel like home, but it never did. Because as a scared, naive, and dumb eighteen-year-old freshman, Le Moyne is not your home.

     

    So I am not going to tell you, “Hang in there! Soon this place will feel like home!” Because it never will. And it will not be easy! It will be hard, and some days all you’ll want to do is call your mom and cry, and that’s okay! It’s all a part of the process of learning how to stand on your own two feet. And in four years, if you stick with it and keep your head above water even when it feels like you’re drowning, I am extremely confident that Le Moyne will do the same for you. There is no place like home, but, even more so, there is no place like The Heights. Good luck, my phellow phins! I wish you nothing but the best!

     

    Contributed by Allison Dolzonek '16

    Category: Student Voices