BLOGS

As I sit down and ponder over my experience of the CMUQ orientation, I truly find it indescribable, and no amount of words can completely do justice with it. However, it would be equally unfair to not record such a wonderful memory.

I must admit that my initial excitement upon deciding to attend one of the most prestigious schools in the world, Carnegie Mellon, was overshadowed by anxiety as orientation drew nearer. Having lived in Islamabad my whole life, I was worried that the transition would prove to be an extremely tough experience. However, as it turned out, I had absolutely nothing to be troubled about. Four days of orientation, and I feel part of the Tartan family already.

I went in on the first day of orientation uncertain of what to expect. I was fasting and the cruelly humid weather during the walk to campus had robbed me of what little energy I had. Nevertheless, as the day’s activities started, all my weariness was replaced by enthusiasm.

The campus was adorned with colorful posters and balloons supplementing the “pirate” theme. The HOCs, OCs and OLs were all dressed up as pirates, as they went around introducing themselves and socializing with the freshmen. The theme gave the place a festive look, and to an outsider it would have seemed like a small carnival rather than a college orientation.

The freshmen were divided into groups all led by two Orientation Counselor’s. I was part of the Rangers, the most enthusiastic and creative group of pirates I have ever met and our Boatswains were Layal and Talal. The activities designed for us gave us a glimpse of what our time at Carnegie Mellon held in store for us, the hard work we needed to put in, diverse social interaction, teamwork, competition, the importance of community service and most importantly, the enormous amount of fun we were going to have as a Tartan.

After coming up with a decent team cheer, “ROW ROW RANGERS, *hoot*”, we set out to compete with the others. The activities included a flag-making competition, an egg race, tile painting, building tower balloons, a scavenger hunt and of course, the AWESOME skits at the end. The orientation was rounded off by a surprise from the HOCs which turned out to be an iftaar at the Four Seasons and was the perfect end to the event.

I must commend the HOCs, OCs and OLs for all the hard work they put in to make every moment of orientation enjoyable, even the long and boring lectures on CMU’s core values. Contrary to what I had imagined my first week in Doha to be, I had a blast and am glad that I made the decision of coming to CMUQ.

Tartans AHOY!!!!