There's nothing better than finishing your last final of your freshman year before summer. You pack up your dorm, load up your car and head back home for a summer filled with family, relaxation and your high school friends. Unfortunately, after about a week, you're already missing your life back at school. I know when I was in high school, I dreaded going back to school each fall, but like everything else in life, college is so much different. Here are just a few reasons that I miss Penn State (and why you might miss it too).
There's always something to do.
Whether you were studying for your next big exam, hanging out in the basement playing pool or even just hanging out with your friends in your room, you were constantly busy. Not to mention trying to work around your busy schedule, you barely had time just for yourself. For me, most of my high school friends have day jobs and I live over an hour away from them, so that makes it hard to find time to hang out together. The good thing about school, and especially living in the dorms, is your friends are usually within walking distance, and they are always looking for an excuse to hang out.
Football games and parties.
If it was football season, you could pretty much bet everyone you knew was driving up to State on a Friday night to party before the big game on Saturday. Games are the best way to meet new people and to basically get drunk with all your friends while watching football. Once the winter weather came, and the roads were too bad to drive every weekend, you could find yourself at one of four places on a weekend in Altoona; Pointe, Pennview, a random house or in your dorm room watching a movie with your roommate. Regardless if you were going out or chilling out, there was nothing better than a weekend in Happy Valley (or Altoona).
Campus wide activities
Throughout the year, CAB and OSL do a great job of filling our calendars with extra activities so you're never bored. Condom bingo, paintball, Pirate games and even giant bubble soccer; there's never a dull moment on campus. And if attending these events isn't enough, you could always work behind the scenes and join any of the clubs on campus. It's always great to see the campus come together to have fun. A tip for freshman: make sure you go to all the welcome week activities; although they might be awkward, most of them are really fun, they help you meet people and it helps fill the time before the rest of the campus fills up.
Your second family lives there
If you ask any college student why they miss college, nine times out of ten, they will tell you it's because of their friends. Although you miss your high school friends when you first go off to school, you find life-long friends who are minutes away from you that help fill those gaps. They've seen you through it all; happy, sad, sick, upset, mad and drunk (and they love you despite that). And after all this time you spend together, they somehow never get sick of seeing you, now that's friendship.
In a little over a month, Altoona will be flooded with college kids, all anxious to get back to the grind that is college. Freshman will be nervous, but the rest of us will be excited to get back to all the things we fell in love with: the ducks, Port Sky food, res life, and most importantly our friends. For me, I've met the best group of people while being in Altoona, and I can't wait for the day I move into my dorm and get to spend another year with them by my side.
