The College Experience.

It’s not getting wasted, failing some classes, getting high, or losing your virginity. That is most of the junk described in those romantic comedies about high school or ideas that are stereotyped about high school. In the next few clicks of a keyboard I am going to share my personal take on “The College Experience” after my first few weeks at my current university. This isn’t the right way to do college. The only right way to do college is the way that is going to make the most memories for you and make you have no regrets. You only live once, just don’t do any illegal stuff. That kind of thing. I’m talking about being new to something, being homesick, making memories while conquering fears, living through classes, and I’m going to attempt to cover all this with some funny personal stories about myself.

I am new to the Odyssey community. I am new to community of the university I currently attend. I am in a new place. I am surrounded by new people that I barely know. Those new people aka my roommate and our floor mates have already seen me in the middle of my brightest and sunniest moments. In about the span of a few hours after day one of camp that basically functions as a way for freshman to get used to being in college, I was already walking around barefoot (a behavior I frequently engaged in at home) and invading people’s rooms for conversation. I’d meet nearly all the girls on my floor and it felt like one of the best things I had ever done. I forced myself to become comfortable in a new setting and did so by making friends with new people. I, much like many people in the class of 2020 or who are entering a new part of life, have started over.

You did, dear reader, read that correctly, starting over. Keep reading and I’ll explain what I’m talking about.

I was given some advice by my older sister, who is a graduate student in a college back in Houston. My sister, Mary Leigh told me that in college I was going to change and that change was going to be a good one. I agreed with her statement despite it having zero form of proof. I am afraid dearest sister that you were correct. Looks like I owe you a soda.

Starting over. Change. Something new. All of that is scary. Starting over is freaking terrifying. Change is one of the freaking scariest things in the world. College to many is a new experience. It is change. It is starting over. College can be scary. It can be very scary. I was homesick about an hour after my parents left and called my mom in tears because I didn’t think I would be able to handle college. I don’t remember exactly what she said, but I think it was something along the lines of, “Maggie. Calm down. Your dad and I are stuck in traffic. You will be fine. You can do this. Please don’t cry. I love you, Yogurt.” Well, mom, I apologize. I’m crying while writing this. Before I left for college my best friend dropped by my house and we had about an hour together. I was on the verge of tears because in September first she was going to move to Pennsylvania because her college is there and I was afraid I’d never see her again. My best friend, bless her heart, got this look on her face and told me very sternly, “No crying.” Sorry bestie, I’m crying now. Being homesick is not wrong or childish. Being homesick means you miss familiar things. That is nothing to be ashamed off.

Change, starting over, and doing something new doesn’t have to be scary. I have a fear of heights. (I’m going somewhere with this. I’m not just full of mindless side stories, I swear.) Heights are among one of the scariest things for me. Going up high and then looking down, you know those scenes in movies when somebody is scared and climbing a ladder up a cliff or something weird like that and some idiotic other person who has already climbed shouts, “Don’t look down!” and then the person climbing looks down and it goes to that weird warble effect of like the bottom of the cliff or whatever? Looking down when climbing up some height is basically that. It is that moment in a movie. That is what happens. Heights are scary for me. I’m part of this Christian Learning Community at my university and we went to this conference/camp area thing and we were all going to do high ropes. (If you don’t know what high ropes is, either go to a camp or type high ropes course into google and do some research.) High ropes are basically, you stick yourself into a harness and get suspended into the air and have to do something like walk across boards stuck to cables that move and then a gap appears because friction due to your weight on the cables and in order to get to the other side you and your 10-year-old fat butt need to jump and end up colliding with the boards only half on them, smash your fingers, and beat your knees black, blue and bloody. We were going to do high ropes and so we got into harnesses and walked a really long time to this area with two phone pole like things and it was basically a massive pendulum. I went second and wanted to go all the way to the top. I get hooked into this thing and the lady told me to hold on to the rope. I held onto that rope like my life depended on it. My group was lifting me into the air and I got about a little more than half way and thing starts slipping and the conversation went something like this:

Me: The rope is slipping! Stop pulling

The lady: Guys, stop pulling!

Me: What now?

The lady: Let go of the rope!

Me: WHAT?

The Lady: Drop the rope!

Me: F*ck it.

My group preceded to laugh at my confusion because in the fear of what appeared to be going up really high, dropping the rope which is what would make me go down was forgotten, I dropped the rope and had the ride of my life. I screamed my lungs out. Lost my balance. Laughed till I cried and sang worship music with my new friends because service is nonexistence in the hills. I tackled a fear I’d had since I was a kid. Taking on your fears feels great.

Going to Class is an important part of College. You are there to get an education. GO TO CLASS! GET TO KNOW YOUR PROFESSORS! I have been blessed by some form of luck, it’s my adviser who did my class schedule for the first semester to have some pretty interesting Professors, 3 of them are doctors, and my Freshman studies class aka “College 101” or “How to Survive College and stay sane” is taught by my adviser who has a Doctoral degree. My English professor in the first five minutes of his first class made a portal reference and has persisted in making various references to various medias in Popular Culture and I have kept coming back because I want to see if he’ll make a reference to a certain video game I grew up playing that involved a kid in green and saving a princess. You should know what I speak of. It’s a secret to everybody. My history Professor, she teaches history and such a way that it feels like a conversation just with more people in the room. It’s great. It’s amazing. I freaking love that class. I spend around 30 minutes in my history professor’s office because I was curious about her thesis. It was a very interesting conversation that I can’t remember half of because it’s been almost a week now and I have a terrible memory. I hate Psychology. I really do. I liked it at one point until my high school intro psych teacher tried to convert the entire class to atheism, which in the state of Texas, I’m pretty sure it’s illegal for an authority figure like a teacher to try and convert students to a certain belief. My Intro Psychology professor has somewhat redeemed the subject for me. I still hate it because it gives me a headache, puts me to sleep, forces me to hike up three flights of stairs, but it’s still an okay class. Going to class is the single most important thing you can do, other then doing your work, because it shows your professor that you actually care about your future. I tend to sit somewhere near the front so I can absorb the information better and not be distracted by the person in front of me playing Elder Scrolls Skyrim on their computer and battling a Dragon Priest that keeps shooting them off a cliff to death with a fireball instead of paying attention in class. Class is extremely important.

College is fantastic and so much fun. The best part as a full time on campus student is that I am able to create my own college experience the way I see fit, and it can include a Dungeons and Dragons Club, A Christian Learning Community, Kickboxing Classes, Volunteering with kids, Classes, Dating, and whatever the hell else I want to do because my college experience is the start of my life as my own person. The college experience is different for everyone because college is different for everyone. The college experience is one of the best things in that can happen in life and we all need to make the most of it because once college ends… Real life happens. College isn’t scary. The dark, unknown, and all-knowing forces beyond our control are scary, but then again. I’m a college freshman that is trying to impart how I believe an experience in something that is so very different to everyone should be preformed. In other words, college is great if you do your work first that is.