Here goes nothing…
This will be my first “real” post =D
I’m not a great, or even a good writer, but I do like writing about random things my mind thinks about when I’m bored. Seeing everyone graduate from college and high school, I look back to the beginning of my freshman year of college, when I didn’t have a solid grip on what I wanted to do with myself. I was nervous, scared, worried, and to be honest, reluctant to start school. Two years later, I can’t believe how much I’ve learned and changed.
First off, UCI wasn’t my first choice, which I later found to be a common trend amongst many students. Secondly, I didn’t know many of the people from my high school would be going with me. I only knew them by name and could carry on a conversation with them, albeit a very shallow one. Nevertheless, I decided that college would be whatever I made of it and managed to move on.
The summer before college flew by at a blistering pace, with my mindset remaining unchanged.
My freshman year was one that I’ll never forget. The types of people I met had expanded exponentially. Most importantly, I never expected that I’d meet people who I could be completely emotionally naked with, which was something that I had never been able to do. It did take some time before I could open up though. When the initial throngs of introductions passed by and everyone floated into their own groups within the hall, I found myself with a few people who lived on my floor. Within that group, I found myself bonding with a handful of individuals, developing intricate and meaningful connections that I hope will only continue to grow as time goes on.
I’d love to write about each and every one of them, but I can see that this post will be long enough as is. (For those of you still reading this, thanks!) So I’ll save that for another time. Also, I’ll tell you now that I won’t be writing about my school life, with the exception of one thing which I will touch on at a later time. I find that school life is mundane enough as is that it wouldn’t be interesting at all to read about.
Looking back on that year now, I realize that I never really appreciated it as much as I should have. Disregarding the obvious things like food commons, proximity to campus, etc., I found that the most important thing I missed was the daily contact with my friends. It was on a different level than the daily interactions with my high school friends. In the dorms, we had no parents to rely on and ended up relying on each other. The constant taking care of each other made our friendships real and less superficial, if that makes any sense at all. Essentially, we became somewhat like a family.
My epiphany came a few months into my first year. I realized, with the help of my friends, that relying on people wasn’t such a bad idea, and that keeping everything inside would do nothing but cause trouble. Because of that, I’m forever grateful of that year of dorm life, even with all the downs that I had gone through.
Short version of my first year(for those who don’t feel like reading a wall of text):
I made some life-long friendships and learned how to open up along the way.
That’s basically the life lesson I learned in my first year, one that I’d never expect I’d learn, or even accept, but I’m glad I did. A few other things had happened in my first year, but compared to the lesson I learned, I won’t go through the trouble of telling you guys about them (unless you ask of course).
In contrast to my freshman year, my sophomore year brought in so much more than I could ever fathom. It was a year that was an emotional roller coaster of epic proportions. I feel like I’ve learned some serious life lessons from this year… I’ll save my complete thoughts of my sophomore year for another post, as this one seems long enough as is.
And that wraps up my first real post. Am I doing it right/wrong? In either case, I’m happy with the result. Peace!
