You drive up, car packed to the brim, mom swiping at tears and dad trying to keep it together. Suddenly, your car is swarmed by football players who starting grabbing suitcases and lamps and boxes from your car. You silently say goodbye to all of those things because chances are, your boxes will end up three halls down from where they're supposed to be. You begin carrying things in and hesitantly you approach the doorway to the room you'll call yours for the next ten months. Your roommates are inside. You knock at first and they whip around. Smiles. They have smiles on their faces. You take a deep breath and walk in.
You meet your orientation group, thankful that you will know some friendly faces when it all begins. You play games and learn too many names to possibly remember. You don't know it yet, but some of your best friends will be made that in that orientation group and all of the awkwardness and mildly scary moments will be worth it. You meet Mariah, Rebecca, and later, Britta and Elizabeth. You think your orientation leaders, David and Amanda, would be cute together, and you'll find out two years later that despite the scoffing and ridicule, you're actually right.
You begin to navigate this thing called college. As a freshman, you find all of your classes two days before they actually begin, just so you know where they are. You plan on eating all three meals on campus. After all, you need to spend $1400 on food that semester, but you don't actually know how much that is, so you ration it in the beginning. You go to your classes and make small talk with the people next to you. Some of them you know from your orientation group (and by some strange fate, this will lead you to Morgan). The first few weeks are filled with Friday night movie nights, laughter, and navigating the having-roommates thing. You learn that it's really, really fun living with Kendra and Emily, and later you'll live with Megan and Nikki, and that's really fun too.
You'll question whether being a teacher is what you were meant to do, but you soon learn that you'll thank God you stayed with it because you couldn't imagine doing anything else with your life.
You'll learn that making mistakes becomes more frequent but doesn't get any easier and that humility is necessary but your least favorite value to practice. You'll learn how to balance working, a social life, sleep, and academics and that one of those things will suffer (and it will be sleep). You'll learn that you can whip out 8 page papers in no time and that staying up until the wee hours of the morning is easier when snacking is involved. You'll learn that taking long walks with Moriah is very beneficial for your soul.
And you'll learn that coffee is very, very, VERY important. (Especially because Shanae gets your obsession too.)
You'll learn that Sue was right: College passes in the blink of an eye, and if you're not careful, you'll miss it. You'll learn that sometimes, you need to forget about your homework and go and make memories. When you don't, you'll regret that you didn't, but when you do, you'll be so, so glad you did.
You'll learn that friends will be going in different directions, and that you'll be going in a different direction too. You'll learn that the most common question after graduation is, "So, do you have a job lined up?" and it will give you a mini heart attack every time you hear it. You'll learn that graduating college doesn't mean you stop learning.
"One day you will blink, and it will be graduation day; you won't understand how you could have ever wanted to leave this place. So appreciate everything, even the bad stuff, because it is the bad, scary, anxious, lonely parts of college that teach you how to take advantage of the happy, fun, exciting, amazing parts. And when you think back to that wide-eyed freshman staring at those ivy-covered walls, you'll realize you were right all along. Everything from that moment on was truly remarkable."
I recommend the following, written by a fabulous author who can say the words much better than I. The last paragraph in quotes is from this article. View it here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/molly-sprayregen/reflections-on-college_b_4064675.html?utm_hp_ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false.
You meet your orientation group, thankful that you will know some friendly faces when it all begins. You play games and learn too many names to possibly remember. You don't know it yet, but some of your best friends will be made that in that orientation group and all of the awkwardness and mildly scary moments will be worth it. You meet Mariah, Rebecca, and later, Britta and Elizabeth. You think your orientation leaders, David and Amanda, would be cute together, and you'll find out two years later that despite the scoffing and ridicule, you're actually right.
You begin to navigate this thing called college. As a freshman, you find all of your classes two days before they actually begin, just so you know where they are. You plan on eating all three meals on campus. After all, you need to spend $1400 on food that semester, but you don't actually know how much that is, so you ration it in the beginning. You go to your classes and make small talk with the people next to you. Some of them you know from your orientation group (and by some strange fate, this will lead you to Morgan). The first few weeks are filled with Friday night movie nights, laughter, and navigating the having-roommates thing. You learn that it's really, really fun living with Kendra and Emily, and later you'll live with Megan and Nikki, and that's really fun too.
You'll question whether being a teacher is what you were meant to do, but you soon learn that you'll thank God you stayed with it because you couldn't imagine doing anything else with your life.
You'll learn that making mistakes becomes more frequent but doesn't get any easier and that humility is necessary but your least favorite value to practice. You'll learn how to balance working, a social life, sleep, and academics and that one of those things will suffer (and it will be sleep). You'll learn that you can whip out 8 page papers in no time and that staying up until the wee hours of the morning is easier when snacking is involved. You'll learn that taking long walks with Moriah is very beneficial for your soul.
And you'll learn that coffee is very, very, VERY important. (Especially because Shanae gets your obsession too.)
You'll learn that Sue was right: College passes in the blink of an eye, and if you're not careful, you'll miss it. You'll learn that sometimes, you need to forget about your homework and go and make memories. When you don't, you'll regret that you didn't, but when you do, you'll be so, so glad you did.
You'll learn that friends will be going in different directions, and that you'll be going in a different direction too. You'll learn that the most common question after graduation is, "So, do you have a job lined up?" and it will give you a mini heart attack every time you hear it. You'll learn that graduating college doesn't mean you stop learning.
"One day you will blink, and it will be graduation day; you won't understand how you could have ever wanted to leave this place. So appreciate everything, even the bad stuff, because it is the bad, scary, anxious, lonely parts of college that teach you how to take advantage of the happy, fun, exciting, amazing parts. And when you think back to that wide-eyed freshman staring at those ivy-covered walls, you'll realize you were right all along. Everything from that moment on was truly remarkable."
I recommend the following, written by a fabulous author who can say the words much better than I. The last paragraph in quotes is from this article. View it here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/molly-sprayregen/reflections-on-college_b_4064675.html?utm_hp_ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false.
love this!!
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