It’s weird starting at Hamilton in January. The Hill is empty, save for some sports teams and the handful of students you bump into at Commons. The deep snow of the Central New York winter welcomes January Admittances as they haul their belongings to their dorms, the first rite of passage of the arrival — finally — to college.
Everything about arriving on the Hill for the first time is a surprising experience. Hamilton doesn’t feel the way it did when you visited in the fall of your senior year in high school, nor like during August orientation. This isn’t just a visit: this is your new home for half a year.
The Jan orientation leaders who greet Jans in Sadove on the first day of orientation are a reminder to Jans of all the reasons why they picked Hamilton College: the tight knit community, the small campus.
But despite the best efforts of the Jan orientation team, it takes time to make Hamilton your home. No matter how welcoming the community, how open you are to making new friends, and how much you’re willing to put yourself out there to join clubs and get to know people, joining the Hill in January is a process.
As every Hamilton student experiences, it takes time learning your way around the school, adopting a new schedule, finding good study spaces, and making time to go out, but also to take care of yourself. It can be gruelling.
The first few months of school are vital for developing friendships, building relationships, and starting your Hamilton career off “on the right foot.” When so few other students are in that mindset the pressure certainly feels high.
This process is especially hard for Jans because they are part of such a small group of students — about 50 Jans and transfers — who join the Hill in January every year. The rest of the student population has spent a minimum of one semester at Hamilton.
When you join a community of people with so much more experience, even in benign skills such as where and when to eat, which professors are helpful in office hours, what study spaces to work in, and what to do on weekends, it’s easy to feel behind the curve.
Despite the wisdom passed on to me from the Jan orientation team, I remember still feeling an urgency to fit in on the Hill. All of that age-old, Hamilton-sponsored advice to “be who you are” and “do what you love” gets thrown out the window when you’re trying to make friends and just feel settled at college.
I craved social comfortability my first semester here. I just wanted a group of people on whom I could rely. If I learned anything from my first semester on the Hill, it’s that I made friends through classes and clubs. It was through shared experiences, like living in Wertimer or not going out on the weekend. I learned that you don’t need to spend all your time around others to be happy.
When it feels like everyone knows their way around, has a close group of friends, or has built a good reputation on the Hill, remember that it didn’t happen quickly for them. When you show up here in January and there are only 50 other new students going through the same thing, it’s too easy to feel like you’re running behind schedule.
Don’t expect to just fit in at Hamilton. It takes time to find your place on the Hill, but there is a place for everyone. Don’t try to fit in; pursue what you love, or what you think you love. Most people change interests and passions many times before they find the people, groups, and departments that they like being around. The Hamilton website is not lying when it promises that on the Hill you can “Study What You Love” and “Be Who You Are.” But they don’t say much about that being a process of trial and error.
Jans learn to take their time on the Hill. Maybe you call Commons “The Soper Commons,” or use the worst shower on your floor with the lowest water pressure for months. You might not get that club position you wanted, or you may get waitlisted in the most interesting class. There are things on the Hill that you can’t control, but there are the things you can. You can keep on applying for that e-Board position, keep on heading to the Writing Center for that glorious A, and keep on heading to that professor’s office hours to get to know them better.
Accept the things that take some time to work out, work on the things that you can, and at the end of your first semester you’ll probably know the difference.
Most Jans wouldn’t trade their experience to start in August at another college. I know I picked Hamilton despite “starting late,” and I wouldn’t trade it for someone else’s experience. Being a Jan takes some work, putting yourself out there when most others have had a semester to do so. But this community has made the Jan experience possible for many years. As long as students are willing to take an unconventional path to get on the Hill, the Jan program will live on.
