Here are some songs that go along with the formative moments of your first year at Mount Allison… 

This song is for when you’re living on your own for the first time and leaving behind important things, whether that be your friends, your family, a relationship, or even leaving your hometown for the first time. This song encapsulates the feeling of having a hard time letting go of someone or something, which is very normal to feel your first time on your own. It is super important to make your space your own – bringing keepsakes and photos from home help a lot if you are feeling overwhelmed! 

This song is about feeling like you have failed miserably at something and wanting to give up. In the context of the song, the protagonist is going to go back to high school after dropping out of beauty school. However, in university, sometimes it will take a little bit of time to get adjusted to the schoolwork. The learning curve is different for everyone and it can take anywhere from a couple months to a year to crack the code to succeeding at university, and it is important to not get discouraged! There are tons of resources at MtA if you are having a hard time academically, like tutors, study sessions, and office hours with your profs.  

This song envelops the exciting, delicate feeling of a newfound friendship, of which you will form many at Mount Allison. Although MtA is quite small, even into your upper years you will still be making friends with new people who you did not know very well before. It is also very normal to need a bit of time to find your people! It often takes a little while to find your footing in a new place and many people are still figuring out who they are and who they want to be around so sometimes you will do a little bit of adjusting before you find your group, and that is okay!  

This song is for when you are finally starting to settle into your life at university and having it sink in that you are living a whole new life in a new place with new people. Around this time, you might start to miss home and your old routines! With this song, you can take little moments during your day to send some love to those away from you and remember that they’ll be waiting for you when you’re done at school. 

This song is for when you are finally starting to realize why people at Mount Allison talk about living in residence so much. Residence life is an intricate part of your time at MtA, where you meet some of your best friends and have a place to truly call home for 1-2 years. Although your first week or so in your new residence room may seem intimidating, the old buildings quickly become home, and you will find yourself missing your residence room when you go back home. 

This song is for when you experience some inevitable hardships during your first year. Although first year is one of the most fun, eventful years of your life, and there are definitely moments that are quite difficult. This classic song reminds you that it is, after all, truly a wild world, and that we will always have someone to lean back on during hard times. 

Written by Laura Kurdyak ('23), a member of the Education & Programming subcommittee of Orientation