By Raena Doty
Arts & Features Editor
The school year started with a heat wave that left many resident students scrambling to cool off - whether they were retreating to the air conditioned McCarthy Center or sleeping with multiple fans pointed at them to keep the air flowing.
Though it would be easy to think someone from the South has a bit more resistance to heat like that, Izzy Shields, a freshman ASL major - and an out-of-state student from Tennessee - can’t say it’s true.
“The first couple weeks, when it was still like 90 degrees, I was like, ‘I’m gonna die,’” they said. They added to deal with the heat, they initially slept with three fans pointed at them, and they rearranged their room to maximize airflow.
Since then, they added they’ve rearranged the furniture in their room since they aren’t so hot all the time, and now they have it set up mostly for aesthetics.
“Now I mastered the art of hiding all of the stuff that I need to hide, because I have so much stuff - because I can’t go home until Thanksgiving,” they said.
They said it’s a challenge not to be able to go home, which is an unusual experience at a school with a large commuter population and mostly in-state student body.
Shields said when they do get to go home, they want to bring back crafting supplies, and added they didn’t think they were gonna “be a crafting person,” but “all my friends and I want to do is sit and have a little craft night.”
They said they chose to come to Framingham State because of the limited options across the United States for people who want to become American Sign Language interpreters.
But they added now that the weather’s calmed down, they’re really happy being a resident student and living in New England for the first time.
In particular, they said they were surprised and amazed by the different environment of Massachusetts.
“During September, the leaves were all still green, and I was like, ‘OK, what is this?’” they said, but added, after that, “Outing Club went on a kayaking trip and like, I don’t know what, but Mother Nature changed every leaf that day.
“It was beautiful. I loved it,” they said.
Shields said they drove here from their home in Johnson City, Tennessee, and they were careful with what they did and did not bring.
They said after being dropped off, their father drove back to Tennessee, leaving them without a car. They added it’s difficult not to have a car, especially as someone with Type 1 diabetes, because they have to regularly fill their prescriptions.
The Outing Club is especially important to them, they said, because they didn’t bring some of the supplies they now want for outdoor exploration, like hiking boots and roller skates.
They said they didn’t have a name for the aesthetic they use to decorate their bedroom, but said, “It’s giving sunset,” and it also has “fun notes of childhood whimsy, because I have a shark rug and a ‘Minecraft’ bee lamp.”
Shields said they brought “like 200 pictures of my friends and family from home” to hang up in their room at FSU, and they haven’t even hung them all up.
They specified, though, they don’t suggest students - especially out-of-state students like themself - bring too much wall art.
“Bring some, but then I would wait to buy stuff,” they said, and added they only went to Boston for the first time a month ago, and they wanted to hang up the new posters they bought in their room.
“That’s something I didn’t even think about - that I’m gonna want to decorate my room with my life now - not the past 18 years of my life,” they said.