More Than a Meet and Greet

In mid- July, I got an invitation in the mail to this event called "Student Send-Off." The invitation included that it was going to take place in Windham, NH (the town over from me), and that there were going to be incoming and current students, and also alumni members around the New Hampshire area attending. I eagerly marked the calendar for August 4th, 6:00PM, in the hopes that this gathering would be a great opportunity to meet new people.

How the Send-Off went (rough estimates on time):
6:00PM-6:10PM: The beginning of the meet and greets with the alumni hosting the event. I learned that the alumni hosting the event not only went to Saint Mike's, but also their triplet daughters all went there, too.
6:10PM-7:00PM: Marissa and Lucas, both incoming freshmen, arrived. The first thing Marissa said to me was, "Hey! You look familiar.. I think we're friends on Facebook." It sounds silly, but I think during orientation that will be one of the main icebreaker lines.  It sure helped break the ice with Marissa, as our conversations led to roommates, residential situations, and classes to finding out she's a Psych major so she's in my psych class. I was relieved that I would be going into one of my classes with an automatic connection to someone. Lucas was welcoming with sharing his previous experience with roommates since he attended a prep school. He provided comic relief about how he took full advantage of the laundry service his prep school offered.
The next two people who came were Amy and Meghan, both current students from the class of 2014. Amy is a religious studies and english double major, and also a blogger and tour guide at Saint Mike's (Check out her blog). She enlightened the group by telling her own personal experiences about Alliot (the dining hall), study abroad (she is planning to go to Istanbul, Turkey), and the professors at Saint Mike's. She offered an interesting insight that made me excited about the networking of Saint Mike's. Meghan was a wealth of information providing her perspective on the residential life. I found out that she lived in the 4th floor of Ryan, which is where I'll be living this year.
7:00PM-7:10PM: huddled up the group of students and alumni to take a picture (alumni at each end)

7:10PM-8:00PM (the time my family departed): I listened to my dad, along with other alumni, point out the now-and-then similarities and differences to Saint Mike's. The one similarity that stuck out the most was that the community feeling was still present. That feeling was something that lured me into Saint Mike's, being that it was highly noticeable on my visit, and even during the send-off. Everyone was friendly and openly willing to answer any questions we tossed at their way.

Saint Mike's takes the cake!