 Welcome to the new Bilkenters of 2009. Another semester is on the way! Firstly, I hope all of you had a holiday that you desired. Nowadays, seeing the excitement on campus, I can't help but remember my first days at Bilkent:
It was only three years ago, in Odeon, that the first phase of orientation activities took place for me. The speaker told us to think of the next four years as 'camp.' We were at camp! Looking back now, I realize he meant a camp where one learns and develops oneself, where we can make friends as well as learn respect and tolerance. Instead of playing games or camping in the woods, we would learn to be productive in society, to remain steadfast in the face of hardship.
Unfortunately, I did not understand all this at the time. The suggestion of camp gave me ideas of being on holiday, and this was torturous because I couldn't rid myself of the thought.
My first year was nothing like holiday. It passed with me shuttling between Ankara and Istanbul each week, sometimes three times a week. After being home, I would cry every time I returned to the dorm. Loneliness overcame me. Leaving my family was more difficult than I anticipated, my new life harder to adjust to.
Luckily, beginning from my second year I began to realize this 'camp''s actual purpose. I began to see my teachers' dedication to their work, which I greatly admired. And I began to see the good in everything around me, instead of consistently rejecting them. Such as my wonderful friends. In fact, many things make me happy here in Ankara, even though it's one of the coldest places in Turkey. Ironically, it has given me the warmest of welcomes, from helpful conferences and seminars, to the variety of clubs where practically anyone can find something of interest. The campus buzzes with unique activity. Take myself, for example. I sometimes go to the library just to glance at the shelves to relieve the tedium of the school life. The smell of books somehow attracts me. Try it once for yourself.
University life brings freedom that helps shape your identity. Is it perfect? Does everything always happen as you plan? Of course not. But you figure it out as you go along. From now on, only you are responsible for your mistakes, which you are certain to make. But at the same time, you are also responsible for memorable achievements. Trust yourself to do all this.
This is especially for those new Bilkenters. For those who must leave behind their home, their family and their friends, in all honesty, I can't say Ankara is the greatest place ever. Instead I will rely on the words of J. Winterson to express how the next four years will feel like you are "… running for cover, with the storm following me across the sky like a storm god, I thought, 'if this was the end, if the end for me was now, would that be OK?' And strangely, I thought it would… Not in a gloomy kind of a way, but because I really feel that I have done the first half of my half, and that I am beginning the second part - nothing to do with age in any obvious sense, but rather a sense both of work done, and huge distances crossed." Never forget that time is too precious to lose.
Best wishes...
By Müge Tekin (IE/IV)
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