Arriving to San Francisco State University as a small town girl from rural Eureka, California, (a coastal town near the Oregon border where internet and just about anything else fast paced or city related was nonexistent), I was wide eyed and in a honeymoon love with riding trains and escalators to get where I needed to go. If only I had known San Francisco would be my gateway to the rest of the world. My first semester quickly found me involved with the International Educational Exchange Council (IEEC), and before I knew it, I was interviewing to move to Granada, Spain. I had read the “questions to prepare for” before the interview, and in true nervous small town style, I answered them all in one long breath despite having prepared my answers separately, leaving them no chance to even ask me more than the first one.
When I left the student exchange office that fall 2007 afternoon, the woman was pretending to do the flamenco with me in the hallway and laughing. Yet, somehow, it still hadn’t sunk in that I had aced the interview. I had to wait nearly three months for the official acceptance letter into the exchange program.
1.) Thing I wish I had known before I arrived to SFSU.
Is that I would be leaving again so soon in less than one year, I crammed as much exploration of the campus activities and the city as I spent time studying and working. My journey with learning realistic time management just got kicked up a notch. If it is your first time in SF, do not expect to be an expert on the city in one year.
For one, it isn’t possible. And two, it is more fulfilling to really get to know the area and build a foundation perhaps for life. For me, keeping it close to home (literally and figuratively) with activities and people I was already working with was a great way to really find my footing. When I came back from two years abroad, I had an organization to come home to full of friends who had similar experiences as me, only in locations all over the planet.
2.) I wish I had known is that there would be computer labs.
Throughout campus and their number and locations would only grow. In the three years since I graduated, and certainly in the nearly eight since I began SFSU, there have been many changes including a new library. With the construction of the new library, there are even more computers and a larger 24-hour research commons. It is possible to be a resourceful college student with a smart phone and no laptop.
3.) Thing I wish I had known If you aren’t health conscious when you arrive to SFSU.
There is good chance you will be as the SF Bay Area has one of the most widespread and longest history of food and planet consciousness’ in the country, SFSU has a variety of typical 90s style lunch places; including burritos, bagels and coffee, a salad bar without labels (probably not organic), and cafeteria style meal plans for those who live on-campus.
So, whether you live on or off campus, if you are into healthy foods, your best bet is to do your own grocery shopping. Hit up the Thursday Farmers Market near Student Services or Sunday at Stonestown Mall (next door), or the smoothie place on campus.
4.) thing I wish I had known: The 4th thing is, as a woman who enjoys her fine!
And sometimes eccentric fabrics, I wish I would have known two things: SFSU is on the foggy side of town, but it could get quite warm in the spring/summer so wear layers, and I could have arrived to SF with basically an empty suitcase and soon been clothed as a new woman with whatever identity I wanted. With the great number of SF boutique thrift stores to the clothing exchanges at State, it is possible to have almost any style on any budget.
My wardrobe almost completely turned over that first year, and then again while I was in Spain (and later Chile), and again when I returned to SF. Clothes and books, food and coffee and beer, are some of the things you will never find yourself without no matter what your budget looks like.
5.) Item I wish I had known is that getting involved is fun!
Not only are you in the friendly city, but SFSU is full of clubs, orgs, sports teams, think tanks, internships whatever it is you will meet new friends, learn to work within a team, gain professional skills, have a healthy social life that is intertwined with your main focus studying. That is your main focus, right?
Bonus: this is your life and with the help of your advisor (or perhaps, despite of what your advisor says) you can declare any major and change it later. So if you are worried about being admitted, declare a less impacted major. With the recession, they don’t generally allow more than one major anymore, but they can’t stop you from changing your mind once you are there.
Whether you are on campus or off, leave the country or stay in SF have fun, work hard, study harder, and don’t forget to WEAR LAYERS!
Holly Sisson holds a dual BA from SFSU in Psychology and Spanish, and in May 2014 obtained an MA in East-West Psychology from California Institute of Integral Studies. Currently, Holly resides in San Diego where she continues to develop her spiritual and shamanic practices in a world of expanding consciousness, remapping the mind with a quantum heart cosmology. She is currently continuing her training with a focus on integrating her body and movement into her practice and aspires to write her first book in the near future that connects the human global village through shared experience and new visions of cross cultural community in a highly developed consciousness.