A Day in the Life (of a First-Year at USC)

8:00 am

Abigail wakes up to another beautiful, sunny morning in LA. She spends an hour getting ready, packing her materials, and preparing for school. In the vlog, she pretends to walk out the door, leaving her camera behind. Voice over: “I’m just kidding, you’re coming too.”

9:00 am 

She has a fairly traditional American breakfast at Parkside, the nearest dining hall to her dorm (and considered the best among students).

Plate:

• Chocolate marble french toast

• Scrambled eggs

• Hash browns

• Bacon

• Croissant 

• Watermelons 

“They don’t usually have watermelons, which is why I’m, like, so excited to eat watermelons. (laughter)”  

“Apparently this is some kind of chocolate marble french toast..? It didn’t look too good, it looked kind of burnt, but it tastes so good! Like, that (gestures to the toast) is intentional. See, this is why you check the dining hall menus, okay? ‘Cause if you, if you don’t check the dining hall menus, you don’t know that this is what it’s supposed to look like and it tastes great! (shrug)” 

9:30 am

She passes a calico-looking cat on her walk to Grace Ford Salvatori Hall where she has her Linguistics lecture. The class ends at 10:50 am. “Linguistics lecture just ended. We finished watching a 25 minute film on code switching in Hong Kong.” 

11:00 am

Abigail makes a quick stop at the Ronald Tutor Campus Center, hoping to pick up a snack. “I usually eat a quick snack at the Ronald Tutor Campus Center, but right now they’re not accepting mobile orders. (pout)” With the Cardinal meal plan, she is entitled to two meals here per week.

Instead, she ends up eating some of the strawberries her Linguistics classmate shared with her. “OH, YOU KNOW WHAT– YOU KNOW WHAT I SHOULD DO?! CHOCOLATE-COVERED STRAWBERRIES! WAIT, OHOO. That’s the plan.” 

11:20 am

She heads over to Everybody’s Kitchen (USC’s first dining hall), coating her strawberries in chocolate syrup. “Sometimes my own genius scares me (sarcastically)” 

Plate: 

• Flour tortilla

• Melted cheese

• Shredded cheese

• Beef birria

• Guacamole

• Avocado crema

• Cucumbers

• Lemon wedge

• Lettuce 

“Now you may be thinking: ‘Abigail, it hasn’t even been four hours since you woke up, and you’ve already had two full meals!’ you know what I say to that? Try walking my schedule and having an unlimited meal plan!” 

11:45 am

With a few minutes left before class starts up again, Abigail heads to Doheny Memorial library to write. She sets her laptop down and types away at the LA Times Reference Room.

12:30 pm

Her Literary Arts discussion at Dr. Joseph Medicine Crow Center for International and Public Affairs ends at 1:50 pm.

In an attempt to connect a laptop to the big screen so her class can watch clips of a Hamlet production, Abigail accidentally presses a random button that connects the screen to a camera in the room. The result is an infinity mirror and her professor points out “Abigail seems to be having fun with that.” “(laughter) We found a way to– it’s endless!”

2:00 pm

Ten minutes after Literary Arts ends, French begins at Waite Phillips Hall. She stays there until 3:50 pm, preparing for her exam on Thursday and trying to remember if a table is feminine or masculine. 

“I just finished Literary Arts class and French. In Lit, we discussed Hamlet. (nerds out) Somuchfun! They’re back-to-back classes, so I couldn’t vlog… until now! I’m done with classes, now I’m heading to the Village.”

4:00 pm

Abigail eats at the Village dining hall, excited to try their crepes for the second time since she arrived at USC. “You know it’s a good day when it’s a crepe day.” She orders a fresh crepe with chocolate syrup, raspberry syrup, whipped cream, & coconut shavings. 

Plate:

• Flour tortilla

• Beer battered cod

• Tartar sauce

• Chopped cilantro

• Lemon wedge

• French fries

• Banana

“(laugh) At this point, I should just rename this. This is not ‘Day in the Life of a USC Student,’ this is… ‘Dining Hall Tour.’ (bites into fish taco) It’s not even 5:00 pm and I’ve already eaten at all the three dining halls at USC (rethinks life choices) (vlog cuts to Abigail scarfing down a crepe anyways)”

5:00 pm

“Okay, I just finished eating. Going to the gym is part of my routine, just not usually on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Usually it’s on Wednesdays, Mondays, and Fridays. But it’s part of my routine, so I’m going to show it to you.” 

Abigail scans her student ID and enters the Village fitness center, warming up before lifting weights. She does a few sets of hammer to overhead presses, lateral raises, and tricep extensions. Usually she’ll run the treadmill or use other machines, but she is in a time crunch and doesn’t want to break a sweat before her photoshoot.

5:45 pm

After changing her clothes, she has her club meeting at Wallis Annenberg Hall from 6-7pm. Writers from Descent Magazine read and critique her two poems, leaving suggestions and encouragement in pen. The Fall 2025 semester issue’s theme is Homecoming. 

“I am part of this club called Descent and it’s a literary magazine for Asian Pacific Islanders and South East Asians. I have the position of a staff writer, so today was my workshop day. I sat at a table and everyone around me held these pieces of paper that had so much of my soul inside of [them], read it, critiqued it, annotated it.”

7:00 pm

Club members walked together to Roski School of Art and Design where the Y2k photoshoot was taking place. “I’m waiting outside, because inside, they have a photoshoot going on. It looks super professional. (nervous laugh) Wish me luck.” 

8:30 pm

Abigail and her dormmate took a trip back to the Village where they ate from some of the chain restaurants. Said dormmate helps her film various shots of her frolicking around the piazza.

Cava order: $13 bowl

• Base: plain rice (?) can’t find it on the online menu

• Mains: Grilled chicken

• Toppings: fire roasted corn, tomato and cucumber, tomato and onion, persian cucumbers

• Dressings: garlic, skhug

• Sides: pita bread

They also redeemed a $1 deluxe cookie reward at Insomnia. Abigail tried the Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Deluxe and ascended into foodie heaven. “Very good. Mmm.” 

9:50 pm

At nearly 10, she ends her vlog in front of a glowing, red Shumway Fountain on her way back to the dorm. “Thank you guys for joining me for my day in the life! (awkward hand gesture) Good night!”