Greetings from Maine! We’ve just completed our first week of second session here at camp, and that means a number of things- the biggest being homesickness. At age 8, missing your parents and your home is pretty natural, especially since these little girls are at camp for 4 weeks. At age 19, I’m finding that my “homesickness” is a bit more complicated. Not only do I miss Texas, but I also really miss Hopkins. After six weeks in Maine, I think that I’ve narrowed my home(wood) sickness down and pinpointed my top 5 things that I miss about Homewood, Hopkins in general, and of course, the awesome city of Baltimore.

Me and my camper, Cori, bumper tubing. Cori has been having a few bad bouts of homesickness lately, but she's getting more independent every day!

1) Living with my friends. Not that living with a bunch of 7-8 year-olds isn’t entertaining, but living with a bunch of people your own age is an absolute blast. Freshmen dorms at Hopkins are pretty social (especially the AMR’s), and it’s extremely easy to acquire housing with your friends as a sophomore. This coming year I’ll be living with 3 other girls in Charles Commons, and I really could not be more excited!

2) Going to class. Maybe it’s a Hopkins thing, but classes are usually super interesting. Next year, I’ll be taking organic chemistry, biology, biology lab, intermediate spanish II, and medieval world.

3) Extracurriculars. Reflecting back on my freshmen year, I really enjoyed my extracurricular activities- especially working for a psychologist at the med campus and translating for hispanic patients at the Baltimore City clinic. Feeling like you’re making a difference has a serious affect on your attitude, and I miss feeling as if I’m making a small difference for the city of Baltimore.

4) Free Time. Living at camp and working from 7:45am-10pm can be pretty exhausting, and it’s definitely made me more appreciative of the free time that I have in college. I think that the sheer amount of free time that freshmen have at first can be pretty overwhelming at first. My advice would be to get involved early on, but also leave enough time to decompress and relax every now and then.

5) Baltimore itself. While I’ve gotten to explore a bunch of towns in Maine this summer, I’ve come to realize how much I love the city of Baltimore. Not only does Baltimore have a ton of diverse restaurants, clubs, shopping, and concert venues, but it also boasts a ton of unique neighborhoods that I’ve yet to explore. Hopefully, I’ll have more time to get off campus this coming year.

That’s all for now! I hope that you are all having an awesome summer, and I can’t wait to meet all of the incoming freshmen in August!

All my Best,
Kaitlyn