First Week is often remembered with less than rose colored glasses, with most upperclassmen talking about how terrible their First Week experience was. They hated the mandatory events, the ungodly long alcohol safety training and, most of all, having no free time.

However, First Week continues to be a lasting part of the Millikin tradition. For all the annoyances about First Week there are certainly some good things. It offers students a chance to explore their new campus without fear of embarrassing themselves in front of some upperclassmen. It also gives new students a chance to bond with their seminar classes and learn about what it means to be a Millikin student.

First Week this year began on Aug. 19. There were, of course, the usual floor meetings about not having candles or cats in the dorm rooms, and then meeting with the First Year Experience Mentors.FYEMs are there to help new students make adjustments to campus and academic life.

The first night of First Week came to a close with the Welcome Assembly followed by Peter Boie, a magician who was nominated for “Entertainer of the Year 2014” by Campus Activities Magazine.

Wednesday the students got the “Welcome to College” talk and met with their advisors for the first time. Then on Thursday, the “Responsibility of Risk” seminars took place for both the men and women.

On Friday, the final day of practically being the only students on campus, the students took part in “A Day of Action.” They helped serve the community by painting fences, cleaning streets and parks and an array of other activities.

“First week is about getting students excited about being part of a new community,” Naomi Jacobs, a senior music business major, said, “and learning more about all the different opportunities that they might not have known about before. I met my best friend during my own first week as a freshman by accident because we ended up sitting next to each other at a movie event. Now it’s my senior year, we are still best friends and are going to be roommates together.”

The First Week schedule is a lot like it has been in past years, but maybe that’s the point; after all, you only get to experience First Week one time as a new student. Regardless of the moaning and groaning of the upperclassmen, First Week continues to be a Millikin tradition, and that’s a good thing.

Jacobs said, “I hope that students get to have a moment like I did during first week. A moment that they can look back on four years later and see how much it changed them for the better.”