With finals in about 3 weeks and not a single life update since I started college, it’s about time I write this before it is too late!

I hear so much about how you make lifelong friends in college and I can see it before my eyes everywhere I go on campus, but that experience did not happen for me. I have met a lot of people, don’t get me wrong, but none have stuck to the ‘friend’ status, and when I thought I had one, it just didn’t work out. My boyfriend and I just agree that we have high expectations for friends, but is that a bad thing? Maybe it is if you are lonely all the time.

The start of the Fall semester can be summed up in one word: HOT. And with minimal back muscles, carrying around my backpack in 98 degree weather was torture. I took two showers a day until the temperature reached the 70’s. My favorite classes were Human Geography and surprisingly, College Algebra. It could be just because I finished that class with an A but who knows.

I ended up on the dean’s list for the fall semester. In which the dean’s list just bragging rights as far as my knowledge goes about that sort of thing, mostly because I know that title won’t last long in my college career haha.

I spent most of my time at the campus library because of anxieties surrounding my roommate- the issues have increased since the fall semester- and that spot became my safe space. I spent up to 5 hours a day in a little private room in the library studying, doing homework, and watching movies at the end of the night, mostly childhood movies like Barbie, whoops! I would also like to add that I spent time at my boyfriend’s dorm as well, and now that the year as a whole is coming to an end I am spending more time there again.

By far, my favorite Fall semester moment had nothing to do with school, it had to do with the fact that I finally got to see Harry Styles in concert! After two years of waiting because of covid, my childhood dreams came true and it was amazing.

The month long winter break was amazing, and after the stress of finals, seemed like just enough time to recover. The spring semester brought multiple STEM courses and my first lab. You would think that after a semester of following a general blueprint of what to do, your lab mates would pick up the groove of things. No. I found it very interesting that as the only non-biology major in my group, I was the only one listening to the lab procedures. I’m not going to say that I am the best, because there is a reason I am not a biology major, but I improved, and unfortunately that is all I can say on my part.

I am repeatedly surprised that my favorite courses are not related to my major: Algebra in the fall and Academic Writing and Research in the spring. For me it is not about the material, it is about the classroom environment, and my writing class for the spring semester is so laid back and very interactive and I know that if I participate, my classmates and I will have fun while learning writing concepts and that the professor will take our input into account on any topic. Dr. Talbot is the best and I would recommend her for any/all courses that she teaches.

There have been a few moments which through all of the stress and doubt, reassure me that I all that I am working towards is worth it and will continue to be as I take more difficult courses in the future. The first being a letter from the Chair of Geography (and my current professor) Dr. O’Connell congratulating me on passing Human Geography. The second happened just this week in which my writing professor recommended that I become a writing major because my writing is “so strong”. While you can read all of my academic papers here on my blog, I never thought about them being anything more than average. When these event happen, they happen right when I need them and when I was leaving my professor’s office I was close to tears.

It means something immeasurable when a person of such high qualifications compliments you on any of your abilities. I’m not even entirely sure if they recognize that their words to students mean more than a simple compliment. I take everything to heart, and knowing that I have any type of skill which will pull me forward in my academic career are the ingredients for my motivation to even be in college in the first place. I am not an honors student, I am not a 4.0 GPA student, or a 30+ ACT score student. I am just average, and these moments mean the world to me.

There were a few “snow” days to kick off the new semester, which mostly consisted of ice. After the fall semester, it was a lot easier to find my classes since I have become so familiar with the campus since August.

I also attended another concert over spring break: Journey with Toto! It was super cool and amazing despite all of the old people scrolling on Facebook during the concert and then making fun of me for standing up when the performers came on stage -_-. They sounded exactly or even better than the recordings and were super charismatic while playing!

Unfortunately I don’t have as much to reflect on for the spring because all of the transitions I had to go through happened earlier in the year. Overall, it was just Freshman year. A lot of people consider college to be “the best time of your life” or even consider high school to be of that nature, however I don’t feel like this is my peak.

I’ll admit that I am not having the time of my life, even though I do get involved in college activities and engage in my classes. Maybe I’ll change my mind in later years but I would like to think that graduating will be my peak, when it all pays off and I get a good job after all of the hard work I put in.

Was college or high school a significant moment in your life? Let me know!

I hope you all enjoyed this personal entry as opposed to academic writings, I’ll have more time for that in the summer time when I go on vacation in June!

See you later,

Katelyn