The purpose of this column is to support you. First-Gen Life will offer tips, stories and guidance to help first generation students not just survive, but thrive here at the University of California, Riverside (UCR).
Sometimes, a quarter isn’t defined by the big moments. Not the midterms, not the grades, not the nights we spent convincing ourselves we were definitely going to drop a class, even though we didn’t. This fall quarter was held together by something smaller, our routines and the quiet familiar habits that helped us move through the noise.
As first-gen students, we don’t arrive with a built-in roadmap for how a quarter is “supposed” to feel. We have to create our structure from scratch. Back on it, it definitely feels like the routines were created both by accident and on purpose. Yet, they carried us farther than we realized.
For many of us, it starts with a morning drink: coffee for some, matcha for others. That first sip was more than a wake-up call. It was a reminder that even if we were running five minutes late, we showed up.
Then came the walks across campus. The ones that feel peaceful even though mentally, we are doing gymnastics calculating whether taking the diagonal route would get us to class faster. With our headphones in, backpack half-zipped, Canvas notifications conveniently ignored, those walks become a mini reset between everything else.
Our study spaces played their part too. With the graduate study area moved this year, many of us wandered into new corners of the library. We accidentally stumbled upon our new favorite spots, some with a pretty unbeatable view of the Bell Tower. It wasn’t just about studying. It was about finding a place that felt steady.
But some of the routines that saved us weren’t academic at all. The playlist that set the tone for the day, the nightly skincare routine that helped us decompress, the ritual of rewriting our to-do lists because we were making progress – those were moments of connection. Even the spontaneous moments grounded us more than we realized.
And of course, the people. The friend you waved to every Thursday, the classmate who made the same joke every week, the quiet check-ins with people simply asking, “are you good?” These aren’t the big, cinematic displays of friendship that we see in movies. Consistency doesn’t need to be large or loud to matter.
Looking back, maybe this quarter wasn’t held together by big breakthroughs. Maybe it was held together by the comforting routines that carried us from one week to the next.
So Highlanders, here’s to the coffee, the matcha, the playlists, the power-walk, the library views and the small rituals that helped us feel okay. They carry us through fall, and they’ll carry us into whatever comes next.
