Growing up, I knew one thing for certain – I was basically required to go to Penn State for college. Why? My family has been going to Penn State since the dawn of time, my grandfather worked at Penn State, if I didn’t go to Penn State, I was going to get disowned.

This was fine with me. I grew up on tales from both my dad and my grandparents, exciting tales of all the things I was going to do, all the people I would meet, all the football games I was going to see. My grandparents lived in State College, so anytime we went up to visit them, it was also time to visit the campus. I would walk around with my parents, see all of the college kids frantically running from place to place, and envision myself in their shoes. Someday, that was going to be me.

As it turns out, college wasn’t exactly what I thought it was going to be. I ended up going to a branch campus of Penn State, so I didn’t get all of the excitement that went along with being at main campus. I’ve never been to a Penn State football game in my life (I’m fairly certain this is sacrilegious, but it is what it is), I’ve never spent more than five minutes inside of a dorm room, and although I could probably direct you around campus with my eyes shut, I’ve never had to tell some poor, unsuspecting freshman where their next class was.

Because the thing about branch campuses (at least the thing about my branch campus, which is one of the smaller ones) is that they don’t really give you that college experience. They can’t.

But, that doesn’t mean that I still didn’t have a fantastic four years of college. I did meet new people, I watched the football games on the weekends and I cheered just like everyone else when we won, and I felt terrible when we lost, I spent the customary amount of time crying over finals and living solely on coffee and red bull, I have made some of the greatest friends, and because I’ve spent four years on such a small campus, I’ve created invaluable relationships with my professors, and through them, I have become so much more confident in my abilities as a student, and a future scholar.

The last four years might not have been what I expected. They weren’t the party fueled, crazy, “greatest four years of my life” that everyone talks about. I won’t have any crazy stories to tell my future children when they ask me what college was like for me, but that doesn’t mean they weren’t great.

I spent four years thinking that high school was going to be the highlight of my life, I got to college and spent four years thinking that was going to be the best of the best, but I’ve come to realize, while college was great, while I learned so much and I will cherish the memories I have, college wasn’t the greatest four years of my life, and that’s ok. Because there is so much more out there, and I can’t wait to see where life takes me.