Logan’s First Week at Howard University (Fall 2025)
Logan’s first week at Howard University began with his August 9, 2025 move into Cook Hall and extended through his first formal day of classes on August 18. The period combined the practical difficulty of leaving Baltimore at seventeen with Logan’s immediate sense of belonging at Howard, the formation of his campus circle, and the first tests of carrying an unusually demanding schedule away from home.
Preparation
Logan entered Howard through the College of Arts and Sciences Honors Program with eighteen credits. His schedule included Genetics, Organic Chemistry I, Honors English, Neuropsychology, African Studies, the Honors Research Process course, and Freshman Orientation. An advisor had declined to recommend the load, but Logan acknowledged the advice and registered anyway.
After Logan’s March 2025 CCBC hospitalization, Julia and Nathan insisted on Howard’s Traditional 19 meal plan rather than Logan’s preferred Block 170 plan. They also sent him with insurance information, glucose supplies, an endocrinology referral, Student Health and after-hours plans, and enough medical organization to carry familiar systems into an unfamiliar residence hall.
Move-In Day
Logan drove his silver Nissan Maxima south from Baltimore with Jacob in the passenger seat. Jacob was recovering from a migraine and had not spoken since the previous night, but he declined Logan’s offer to stay home and came anyway. Nathan and Julia followed in Nathan’s 4Runner with the boxes. A Howard lanyard hung from Logan’s rearview mirror, and his Dexcom read 112 mg/dL with a steady arrow during the drive.
On Georgia Avenue, a man outside a barbershop noticed the Howard sticker and gave Logan a thumbs-up. Logan’s shoulders relaxed before he consciously registered the change. At Cook Hall, Marcus had already arrived and texted at six that morning that he had secured the campus-facing side of the hall.
Logan placed the Howard parking decal on the Maxima before unloading. Jacob carried boxes and bedding upstairs without making his participation into a conversation. Julia organized Logan’s side of Suite 312, labeled supplies, and quietly placed a lavender dryer sheet in his desk drawer. Marcus recognized the family’s need for space and withdrew without turning the gesture into a performance.
After Jacob carried up the final bag, he looked at Logan and left with even, measured footsteps. Nathan followed him. Logan asked Marcus to remain nearby and helped Julia make the bed. He asked Julia whether being excited about Howard made him a bad brother while Jacob was struggling with his own departure. Julia told him that being excited about his future was not a betrayal of someone he loved.
Julia completed the medical rundown even though Logan already knew every part of it. She asked for weekly calls rather than texts, held him in a full goodbye hug, and told him to build a life at Howard rather than measuring the experience by how often he came home.
Oohh’s & Aahh’s
On Logan’s first Saturday evening in Washington, Marcus brought Logan, Deon, and Aaron to Oohh’s & Aahh’s on Georgia Avenue, where Liana and Jaya joined them. Logan ordered fried catfish, macaroni and cheese, and candied yams. The room, the food, and the presence of Black families and students let his body settle into the neighborhood before he had language for the feeling.
Jaya asked whether Logan was trying to prove something or trying to get four years ahead. Logan answered, “Both.” During the meal, Baltimore stories repeatedly led back to Jacob. Logan eventually said, simply, that his brother played piano at Juilliard. At the end of the meal, Marcus paid for Logan and explained, “We take care of ours.”
Bison Week and the First Day of Classes
Logan spent Bison Week learning the campus while his room remained physically wrong in small, persistent ways: the twin XL mattress was too short for his six-foot-four frame, Luke was absent, and Cook Hall lacked the sounds and routines of Roslyn Avenue. He managed the homesickness through familiar systems, early waking, Dexcom checks, reading ahead, and ‘’MythBusters’’ in low light.
On Sunday, August 17, Marcus brought him to breakfast at Blackburn. When the group discussed schedules, Logan disclosed the eighteen-credit load and upper-level courses but allowed an older student to assume that he was a transfer rather than revealing that he was seventeen.
Formal classes began Monday, August 18. In Genetics, Dr. Harrison recognized Logan from his summer 2025 Johns Hopkins lab work and epigenetics poster, briefly threatening the anonymity Logan wanted before apologizing for putting him on the spot. In Organic Chemistry I, Logan met Maya when she noticed that he took handwritten notes in a room full of laptops and accepted the preference without the ridicule Logan had learned to expect at Edgewood. In Dr. Elaine Meredith’s Neuropsychology course, Logan was able to engage with material he loved without the same social pressure.
That evening, Logan asked Jacob if he minded a call, and Jacob initiated FaceTime. The familiar rhythm between them eased the strain of the first day. Logan also heard Charlie for the first time as Jacob’s new roommate: a higher voice, guitar, rapid Spanglish, and complaints about chipped nail polish from somewhere beyond Jacob’s camera. Marcus ended the evening by calling Logan out of his room to get dinner.
Medical Management
Type 1 diabetes remained part of the week without becoming its central crisis. Logan’s established systems traveled with him: the Dexcom, glucose tablets, juice, backup supplies, meal-plan structure, and the medical information Julia placed within reach. His readings remained stable during move-in and the first Saturday meal. Dining-hall carbohydrate estimates, changing activity, poor sleep, and the pressure of the new schedule required adjustment, but the week did not include a loss of consciousness or public medical collapse.