Sunday, April 28, 2013

My College Experience

As finals week of my Senior year approaches I feel compelled to look back on my past four years.  I  haven't necessarily "done" college how I wanted to and I definitely haven't "done" college in a way anyone has portrayed in a movie or on TV.

I will clarify though that next weekend I will not be graduating and I have now joined the ranks of the crowd that calls themselves, Super Seniors.  However, I do know a lot of people graduating and I want to reflect on the times I spent with them and how I wish we would have spent more time together.

When I was a freshman I started at a branch campus because honestly I was afraid of moving 3 hours away and not having any friends going where I was going.  Penn State Fayette was my way of slowly transitioning into college life.  I can honestly say that my first two years there were probably the better part of my college career.  I did well in my classes, I made friends and I got involved on campus.  I was in a theater group there called the Lion Players and I loved every minute of it.  I also met Kyle at my branch campus through joining the Lion Players.

Sophomore year was also spent at Fayette and it was just as good as Freshman year.

After two years at Fayette I had to move up to Penn State's main campus in State College.  Kyle and I both moved up and we started living together in an apartment that we still call home.

My junior year didn't really start off well.  When we moved up I had a broken foot and was on crutches for my first 4 weeks of classes.  It was dreadful.  I wasn't really able to get involved with any clubs at school because joining a club usually meant needing full mobility which I didn't have.  So my first semester at the main campus wasn't great.  It got a little better once I lost the crutches but at that point I didn't feel like joining any clubs because the semester was half way over, I had a lot of school work and I was feeling kind of crappy because my classes weren't going so well.  I did meet some friends though and we "partied" at each other's apartments and that was pretty fun.

My second semester at Penn State was better.  I still didn't involve myself with any clubs because on top of classes I had to get a job so I was busy.  Partying was a weekly occurrence and in February of that semester I turned 21.  I will say that I was totally happy with how my 21st birthday went.  I couldn't have done it any better.  After the first 2 months of the semester though my new friends turned into jerks and Kyle and I didn't really hang out with them anymore.  After that I got depressed, not because of the friends thing, and life went down hill for a little while.

Senior year has been okay.  I've had a job the whole time and that has kind of sucked.  It doesn't leave room for making new friends, or joining clubs, or hanging out with old friends.  I'd say the Fall semester was much better than this Spring semester.  Lately I've been feeling a lot of regret for not get involved and staying in close contact with friends.  There are times when I would like to just punch myself for not hanging out with people that are graduating this semester.  This all comes up because Kyle went on a bar tour yesterday and I'll admit that I'm a little jealous.  I did get to go out with friends from work (and have a great time) but still.

Super Senior year has the potential to be better and I would like to try and be involved with at least one club.  I would also like to be closer to the few people that are here and aren't graduating in a week.  I'd also like to make at least one or two new friends.  Those are my goals for next year.  I guess we'll see what happens.

My advice to all you collegians out there, stay in touch with friends, get involved and try to meet new people as you go along.  Do everything you can so that when you're a Senior you have nothing to regret.

Happy Sunday! And if you're taking finals this week or anytime soon Good Luck!

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