{"id":26,"date":"2025-09-08T20:35:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-08T20:35:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/sophiaw\/?p=26"},"modified":"2025-09-08T20:35:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T20:35:07","slug":"settling-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/sophiaw\/2025\/09\/08\/settling-in\/","title":{"rendered":"Settling In"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/sophiaw\/files\/2025\/09\/IMG_3511.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-31 size-medium aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/sophiaw\/files\/2025\/09\/IMG_3511-225x300.jpeg\" alt=\"Two students smiling at the camera at Kinnick stadium in the evening.\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/sophiaw\/files\/2025\/09\/IMG_3511-225x300.jpeg 225w, https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/sophiaw\/files\/2025\/09\/IMG_3511-768x1024.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/sophiaw\/files\/2025\/09\/IMG_3511-300x400.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/sophiaw\/files\/2025\/09\/IMG_3511.jpeg 828w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>As the second week of the semester comes to a close, I would like to take some time to reflect on my first few weeks here as a new Hawkeye at the University of Iowa. As someone who struggles with change, my time here so far has been far from perfect. There\u2019s been ups and downs, and definitely a rollercoaster of emotions, but I can say that the University of Iowa is a beautiful place to be. Finding your way around can definitely be a bit nerve-racking, especially in the first few days of classes. Pro tip: don\u2019t be like me and not walk your classes before they actually start. After a few days, you do start to get into a routine, and the campus starts to feel a lot smaller than it seemed. I would recommend trying to take any opportunities you can. Do everything during welcome week, knock on your neighbors&#8217; doors, go up to random people and meet them, truly get out of your comfort zone, because that\u2019s when you meet the best people and have the most fun. Even if you feel it might be \u201ctoo late\u201d to try to meet new people and make new friends, that&#8217;s simply not true. Everyone is in the same position or has been in the same position that you are currently in. I can already feel that freshman year is going to go by in the blink of an eye, so I am doing everything I can to make the most of it. I\u2019m only a few weeks in, but I can already tell this year is going to challenge me in the best ways. I\u2019m excited to make new connections, go to all the Hawkeye sports games, and continue to find my place here at Iowa. I\u2019m so grateful to be on this journey, and I can\u2019t wait to take all of you with me through it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As the second week of the semester comes to a close, I would like to take some time to reflect on my first few weeks here as a new Hawkeye at the University of Iowa. As someone who struggles with change, my time here so far has been far from perfect. There\u2019s been ups and downs, and definitely a rollercoaster of emotions, but I can say that the University of Iowa is a beautiful place &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":174,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/sophiaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/sophiaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/sophiaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/sophiaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/174"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/sophiaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/sophiaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35,"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/sophiaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26\/revisions\/35"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/sophiaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/sophiaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/sophiaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}