So moving away to college I had this idea in my head of exactly how everything was going to go and what it was be like. As I've been living the college life for around a month now I'm figuring out that it's really nothing like what I've expected. It reminds me of 500 Days of Summer... maybe cuz Katy and I watched this movie last week but also because it's just really life:
Here have been my thoughts on college:
First off isn't campus so cute??
-I just assumed that once you moved away you'd all of a sudden have tons of friends and have stuff to do all the time for fun. Not true. The number of people I've met and introduced myself to amounts to about 1000. The number of people that I'd actually consider my friend: 4. They don't just come naturally and that's ok, it's just different.
(This is like the only social thing I've done all semester haha... Institute party)
-I imagined myself writing papers every night and being super overwhelmed with school. Honestly school hasn't been too hard for me yet, I feel like I took hard enough classes in high school that I was prepared. It's just a completely different learning style in college, there aren't many assignments actually due, you just have to self motivate yourself to study and actually read the book or you'll totally fail the tests. The classes have like 200 kids in them which is kind of hard to adjust to and it definitely makes it hard for me to pay attention cuz I'm like well the teacher doesn't care, he can't even see me. But yeah, school is different but good. It's boring, but I feel like I'm doing pretty well so far. Now I just need to decide a major... Hmmm...
-I thought that cooking and shopping would be a lot harder than it really is. It's come pretty naturally to me to make my own food. Shopping is stressful mostly because I know every time I swipe my debit card there is no income coming in which freaks me out. And groceries are just really really expensive and it's hard to know what to buy. But overall it hasn't been too bad. And Katy and I have a goal to bring all the groceries in in one trip every time... so far so good :) Also we are becoming pro chefs. We had hamburgers this week and zucchini pizzas. We seriously eat zucchini like every day.
-I've seen my family a lot more than I thought I would which has been so good because my biggest fear about college was leaving my sisters. I love those girls. Thankfully they send letters all the time and I text my mom like a million times a day. Also the girls send the best snapchats:
-Living with a roommate is actually really fun. Katy has been my lifesaver. We have the best late night chats, she makes me laugh so hard. Last Monday we watched 500 Days of Summer and Dear John in one night and ate so many Halloween Oreos. She makes the hard days a lot easier.
Late night froyo runs looking like homeless ladies are always a go.
Movie night= chick flicks+ oreos+ cheese its
We tried the new iPhone self timer. 10 seconds is way too long hahaha
Also our household rules consist of not wearing socks unless it's snowing because we always get so sweaty at night haha and not ever having macaroni and cheese after 10 pm because we tried that once and it was a bad plan. I love Katy so much and especially that we listen to country music all the time and have dance parties and we can talk about anything and she's just really fun.
-Having other roommates doesn't guarantee having other bffs. Sometimes your roommates are a lot older than you and just have different personalities than you. But they're all nice and they don't steal any of my stuff so really they're cool I just hardly ever see them.
-Cross country has been a HUGE adjustment. I went from being one of the fastest runners on the team and knowing literally everyone and being best friends with the coaches to being near the back of the pack and knowing no one, especially not the coach. It's been hard because I'm one that needs individual coaching and feeling like my coach is invested in me and knows me and wants to help me not just as a runner but as a person. But I've learned tons about running from just this one season at USU and I have super buff abs and I met Katie and Emily who have become some of my closest friends here. It's been a really good experience, just a lot different. Not going to lie, I miss my Lehi XC. But that moment putting on the Utah State jersey realizing you're actually running a college race- that's pretty cool.
(Emily McDonald, Katie Hill, me)
So... this post was kind of short and lame but it's getting late and I'm tired. When people ask me if I love college I never know what to say because honestly I've had some of the most emotionally, spiritually, and physically difficult days of my life since I've gone to college but overall I'm learning and becoming more independent and blah blah blah it's been good :)
But just a tip: Don't have your best friend leave on a mission your first month after college because that makes things really rough. It's tried my faith a little (ok a lot) and there have been many tears shed. But I'm getting better and someday it'll be ok. That day might be in 2 years but that day will come... God is good and He always blesses his children.
I am thankful for college and the lessons I'm learning and for my laptop because I love it and for Keith Urban pandora station and for Aggie Ice Cream and for institute and for getting letters and for watching too many movies and for passing my first test and just for going to the greatest school there ever was.
