Those very comforting words, spoken by head of Precollege Programs, Michele Nagel, lingered in my head throughout my whole morning … I was so full with butterflies in my stomach that I couldn’t even eat one thing for breakfast. That is until I remembered that Michele Nagel said the two main reasons for fainting was 1. not eating breakfast and 2. nerves. “The kid who fainted on the first day” wasn’t exactly the image I was going for at FIT this summer… So I tried to keep as calm as possible, and luckily I had this very friendly lady (sarcasm) to accompany me during my commute:

Anyway, once I got to FIT I felt so overcome with many different kinds of emotions. I was excited, nervous, anxious, hopeful, happy, sleep-deprived, but most of all I felt belonging. This is where I’m supposed to be, I thought. I’ve been calling Long Island home, when it was really just a 40 minute train ride from Manhassett to Penn Station. At the start, I felt as if I was being eaten alive by the city, with the towering skyscrapers and intimidating business people doing their “hustle and bustle” New York City stuff. I mean, I’m from New York, but I never felt like a New Yorker until then. No parents/guardians. No maps. No Siri directing me to the Great Hall. I was finding my way on my own, and never before did I feel so independent. I love that feeling.

I don’t know how to ride a bike, so I’m not sure if I’m in the position to say this, but it felt like that cliché “the first time you learned how to ride a bike.” You know, when your dad slowly let’s go of your shoulders, and you quickly adapt to the peddling, doing anything in your will to not fall and scrape your knee. That was how I felt. I was learning how to ride New York City for the first time in the 16 years that I’ve lived here.

My first few steps onto the campus was so much to handle. There are no other words to describe it other than a sea of individuality. Girl with purple hair to the right, guy in fishnets to the left, everyone was so unique. I looked at it as everyone wearing their personalities. People channeled themselves through their apparel, hair dye and body modifications, and I genuinely respect that.

I will admit that the start of my classes were a little awkward. Introductions are never a comfortable conversation. You could hear faint “I’m from’s” and “My name is” all around the classroom. However, some people signed up for FIT together, so with them you could hear gossip about their friends from towns you have no idea of. “Stacy did what!?” and “I can’t believe Matt would say that!” Then there were those who shared mutual friends with their “OMG I know someone who goes to the same school! Wait, do you know (insert name here).” I did end up meeting some people with mutual friends, some without, but all in all I’m just glad I met people. Sitting alone at Panera Bread isn’t really my thing.

So I guess you can say my first day was a success! I didn’t end up fainting, which is a major plus! Nor was I late, which is a very rare occurrence. Anyhow, I should probably describe my courses a little. So my morning class, HFA 143: Architectural Rendering is more of the creativity side of architecture than the intellectual side. We start taking trips Wednesday where we’ll be sketching buildings and different architectural spots. In the afternoons I have HAC 063: Careers in Advertising and Marketing Communications, which managed to captivate me within the first 30 minutes. We talked about branding, and different kinds of demographics, or target consumers that big companies look for. After a long three hours, we were let out and I walked two blocks down to my parents’ office, where I’d wait for them to finish up whatever work they had until we finally went home.

Well, that was my first day at FIT in a very big nutshell. Thanks for taking the time to read! And please, feel free to comment with questions or even comments on how your day went!

xoxo,

Bran

P.S. I think I’m going to post my outfit choices for every day that I make a post. So this is what I went with for today:

Top: Blue/Grey Linen shirt from H&M
Bottoms: White and Blue pinstripe shorts from Abercrombie & Fitch
Shoes: Sebago colorblock boat shoes from Bloomingdales

Accessories:

• Vintage brown leather belt
• Vintage brown/black leather messenger with a gifted Prada key chain
• Ray-Ban aviator sunglasses
• A sketch book from Blick Art Supplies that I plan on taking with me every where.