Choosing a college to attend, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. It was scary leaving the place that I called home for almost 18 years of my life to say hello to new one. On April 25, 2015, I made the biggest decision of my life, thus far, and decided to attend SUNY Geneseo in the upcoming fall. To be honest, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Geneseo is a very unknown school in my area, but all of the rumors that everyone believes about this University are completely preposterous.

“There are more cows than people.”

Coming from Long Island, we associate anything north of Westchester to be “upstate.” And then whenever we hear the word upstate, we think of farmland and animals with the occasional cities of Buffalo and Albany. It is insane that people, including myself, believe this. Believe it or not, people actually live in this nice little town. Not just college students, but there are residents. There are homes in this upstate nowhere-land that human beings live in, not cows or sheep. The population is roughly 8,000, not taking into account the 5,000 students that attend the school.

“The winters are absolutely brutal.”

People automatically think that Geneseo is right next to Canada, so the winters must be horrible. Despite how close we are to our neighbors up north, it isn’t as unbearable as people would think. Yes, it does get cold, but we aren’t going from class to class being pulled by a sled dog. Upperclassmen will claim that this winter wasn’t as brutal as most, but my experience showed me that the winters are completely doable. The snowfall back on Long Island was actually more than it was in Geneseo this year, so our intolerable winters were actually not that bad.

“The hills are insane there.”

OK, this one is true. Any Geneseo student will admit, their calves have never looked better. Climbing up and down the hills to either get a bite to eat or to go to class is a workout in itself. The only benefit of the hills is that it gives students an excuse not to go to the gym because walking to class is like being on the treadmill on maximum incline.

“There’s nothing to do up there.”

Are we a huge city where you have the world at your fingertips? Absolutely not! But this does not mean there is nothing to do. There are actual stores ranging from restaurants to gift shops and the largest Walmart I have ever been in. There’s also a bowling alley and a movie theatre. That might be the extent of things we have to do, but it is more than people would think. People think that the school is practically dropped on a farm where the students go cow tipping for fun, but this small town in Upstate New York has more to offer than meets the eye.