I'm a first-year student at UT Austin, and as many think that it's all fun and games, sadly, it's exactly that. The transition from high school to college was a hard one. There was so much that I was exposed to all at once. New experiences happened and will continue to occur. While deciding which one to write about first, reflecting on the past 9 months of my life, I came to the realization that this one is probably the most shocking of them all.

I'm going to start from the beginning, my very first "college" experience. I came from a small suburb about 15 minutes from Dallas, Texas. I moved to Austin to study at UT (obviously), now to study what, I wish I knew then. I came into college blind as to what I wanted to do with my life. I had the mindset that what I was meant to do was just going to find me, and in many ways, it did! I'm now an Advertising major who's also minoring in business. I didn't come alone, in fact, my roommate, we'll call her Mallory, was part of my graduating class. Everything I've experienced thus far, she's been there, physically and mentally, AND I MEAN EVERYTHING. I've also made some new friends since I've been here, friends that play a very big role in my life story. I met a guy, we'll go ahead and name him Dick, who is actually mutual friends with a family member of mine. He's the most sarcastic, smooth-talking, outgoing person I know, who just so happens to drive a Mustang 5.0. Everybody expects to meet their friends for life in college. I didn't believe this until I met a girl, let's call her Joy, in my first-year interest group. She was outgoing, tall (VERY TALL), and funny. She related to my roommate and me on more levels than one, which eventually led to her tagging along on all of our adventures.

My first "college" experience wasn't necessarily a college experience, but rather first drinking, partying, and life experience rolled into one disastrous ball. In high school, I was always one to play by the rules. A goody two shoes. I was that girl that was in every club just to have a long resume. Now don't get me wrong, I did have opportunities to experience life, I even had a boyfriend (who comes into play later), but even with opportunities to grow my experience in certain areas of life, I was never comfortably open to it. That is until I got to Austin.

All the chaos occurred in a span of one night. I had my first Four Loko, my first beer, my first experience playing a drinking game, my first real party, and my first hangover. Now that I'm actually thinking about it and reflecting my actions from that night, I made some horrible decisions. It all started in the evening, of course, I had homework that I had to get done, so Mallory and I decided to go over to Dick's apartment and study there. Little did we know that one of Dick's roommate was throwing a Halloween party. Let me point out, it wasn't even Halloween yet, but rather the weekend before- first red flag! I had made a compromise with Dick that if I was to finish all my homework before 10 pm that I would be down to stay for his roommate's party. Well after a few hours, an argument with my boyfriend about him being in Dallas without informing me- second red flag, and a trip to wing stop, I got all my homework done (surprised? I was too). So Dick drove Mallory and me back to our dorm on campus so we could change and get dressed, in the meantime he was making a trip to the local convenience store to buy 3 watermelon flavor Four Lokos. Now, if you were to tell 17 y/o high school me about the next few actions that were going to happen, she would cringe with shock. Dick came back in a span of 15 minutes to pick us up. We got into the car, and he handed each of us a can in a bag and uttered to words, "drink up". Looking at the can, I remember contemplating everything that was going on in my life at the moment. I was doing okay with school, that wasn't my biggest stress. My biggest stress was my relationship. Things weren't the same, and he was my best friend so I was really scared because I knew where things were heading. After contemplating about that, and making myself angry again thinking of him being in Dallas without telling me, I popped open the can and started chugging. The crazy thing is I didn't stop- third red flag! It takes about 7-8 minutes to get to Dick's apartment from my dorm, and within that 7-8 minutes, I had finished my first ever can of Four Loko. It was nasty, of course, but it got the job done...QUICK. I didn't stop there, however, we went up to the party and Dick handed me a beer, my first ever beer. It was sadly nasty as well, up until it started tasting like nothing...that's when things took a turn for the worse. The night went on, and I ended up playing my first game of flip cup ever, which is very hard when your super drunk. Then I headed to the bedroom, where all the mistakes were made. I don't remember much, but what I do remember is that I pulled out my phone, and dialed my boyfriend at the time- fourth red flag, and should have been my last and final one but sadly it wasn't! The conversation lasted from what I can remember a good 5 minutes until he hung up in frustration, and then soon after my mom called, and I answered for a split second-5th red flag! I don't remember her being too mad about me drinking necessarily, but rather me not letting her know that I was, and where I was going to be. She was nervous, I was nervous, everything was just a mess. After Mallory and Dick pulled my phone away from me, I headed to the bathroom, and the rest is literally an ugly history.

I woke up the next morning laying beside Mallory, who was sleeping between Dick and I. I was so dizzy and had a headache the size of Mount Everest. I knew I had done some damage to my personal life, but even among all the chaos, I didn't regret it. It was an experience, my first real experience making decisions on my own about my actions. After that night, I broke up with my boyfriend the next weekend, or the weekend after, I honestly do not remember. That night made me realize that I was, and still, am in college. I have so much experiencing to do, and while being in a relationship at this age isn't a bad thing, but being in a toxic relationship is. Especially if it's long distance. Taking that Four Loko was a bad decision, with somewhat good consequences, almost like you can call the drink my frienemy or something. It made me realize that I have a lot of experiences waiting for me, that life at this age shouldn't be stressed so much, that my focus should be on having fun and enjoying my youth. Like I said before, I don't regret anything that happened that night. It was the introduction to a very interesting first year at The University of Texas at Austin, but you'll read all about that soon.