Not quite.

It is only 4 weeks into the school year and I am already feeling the woes of being at senior at CMU.  Yes, of course, I LOVE CMU----absolutely love.  BUT, I don't love the job search so much.

College gets complicated.  Freshman year, you are still figuring things out, joining organizations and getting a feel for what things you like and don't like.  Sophomore year you dedicate yourself to a select few organizations.  Junior year you serve on some executive boards for a couple of different organizations.  And for me, senior year is when I decided to become a co-director and co-chair/founder of another organization.  Although I couldn't be more in love with these two different organizations, all of my activities do start to add up.

Then comes all of my academic classes.  Luckily, I am not taking a heavy academic course load, but all of my civil engineering classes do require a lot of outside group work.  Classes such as personality, my directed study and salsa, bachata and merengue remind me of why CMU is so amazing---the range of classes any one student can take.

Finally, here comes the tricky part.  No matter how many resources CMU gives you, YOU have to go out and find the job.  I wish they gave us a week off just for the job search.  But unfortunately, time stops for no one.  So as I brace myself for the job fairs and prepare my resume, I just need to remember---once I get the job, I can easily slip right into that carefree, jovial senior year.

Of course, I am not actually escaping Pittsburgh with my 10 minute walk down 5th Ave.  But, there is that feeling of escaping the CMU "bubble" that helps me to regain my sense of identity (and even sanity at times too).  So, heading over to the neighborhood of Shadyside is enough of an escape for me.

Shadyside's form of main street, Walnut Street, is home to an eclectic grouping of stores and shops.  The small mom and pop variety store and markets give you the comfort of walking down a suburban street right out of a 60's movie---the only thing missing is my white picket fence and home baked cookies. However, there is a sprinkling of modern and higher end stores such as Sephora, Apple and Coach, which also appeal to any college aged female's shopping senses.  And for this (temporary) NYC transplant, shopping, good food and a sampling of the cute small stores provide all that I need for a great Saturday.  Not to mention, the Shadyside nightlife can be a fun environment to watch a Steelers game or to take a friend out for a birthday dinner.

So, whenever the CMU grind has gotten a bit overwhelming, remember, your most needed escape maybe be closer than you think.

I had spent the week prior to the start of classes, living with my residents, getting to know them and convincing myself that I could totally handle being the responsible RA that I was expected to embody.  We spent the entire week, going through orientation, learning about Carnegie Mellon and challenging the first year class to get to know more about themselves.  Luckily, my floor is full of an eclectic mix of AMAZING people.  During the first day of RA training, Helen Wang, a Housefellow of a first-year house, stated that every person has something inherently awesome about them---and as I sat through my first floor meeting, nothing could more accurately describe the group of women beyond me.  

Of course, orientation has it's peaks and valleys.  Saying goodbye to Mom, Dad and Rufus the dog, is always challenging.  However, meeting super cool people who you instantly connect with, makes each moment feel like a firecracker waiting to go off. The peak of my orientation experience definitely has to be House Wars!  Each first year house goes out to "The Cut" to defend their honor in a battle to the death.  But in reality, all the houses dress up in their house color, embodying their house theme of that year, and playing silly games like transporting water from one bucket to another with a sponge and bat-spin relay races.  This year, Stever House's theme was Toy Story, hence the attempt at a Slink Dog costume with another RA in Stever.

Overall, after a long week of orientation, it was nice to start classes and get back into the daily grind of life at Carnegie Mellon.  Club meetings, classes and back to work at the Office of Admission.  Although I could not be further away from my freshman residents than I am now, as a senior, Year 4, Week 1 doesn't feel all too different from Year 1, Week 1.  Yes, I now know how to find Porter 100 and I already have friends who I can call up to each lunch with.  However, the anxiety of where my life will take me in the next couple of years, feels all the same.  Who knew? Three years later and I would end up reliving aspects freshman year all over again.