Orphan Train

The first co-curricular event that I attended was the Orphan Train book discussion. During this hour discussion, the students broke into groups to discuss the book. Many resident assistants were there to help the students discuss the book and give questions to answer regarding the book and its relation to ourselves and the university. The questions that were given helped give readers different perspectives of the book. By going to the book discussion on Orphan Train I realized that many events that happen in the book can relate to a new college student.

This event does not really reflect the University’s 2015-2016 theme of “Living Mercy Creates Community”. The only thing that could relate to the theme is that by having to read this book and

On way is that we talked about how one of the many themes of Orphan Train is adaption. In the book, both Molly and Vivian have to adapt to their new lives. Both Molly and Vivian’s adaption related a theme from the book to the FYE course, and my life as a new college student. In class, we have been learning ways to adapt to our new single surrounding. We have learned ways to get help, who to go to for help, learning best study habits, time management, and much more. The discussion of Orphan Train impacted my academic development and personal development in two ways. One way for academic development, is that I got to see other people’s side to the novel, and I got to look at the book in other’s perspectives. For example, a girl had said that she thought that the ending of the novel was disappointing. I thought to myself, how can she say that? To me, it was not disappointing, just unexpected. After hearing the reason as to why she thought it was disappointing, I understood her point of view. One way for my personal development, is that I learned that I am never alone. We talked about what the characters in the book, and what they went through. I realized that I could possibly go through the same events that they did. After realizing that, I then thought to myself how I would not be alone in any situation. I learned that someone will always be there, and most likely someone is going through the same thing as