so i have just gotten home from my first year at university. on a scale of 1-10 i would rate my first year an 8. socially it was amazing, i met a ridiculous amount of people, and made so many new friends from so many places. though i had a bit of a rocky start with getting along with new people and not having my mom to make sure i go to class or do my homework or eat something, i was happy i was forced into growing up and forced into this world. something else i loved so much was pledging a sorority. i pledged, and i loved it. i dont know if anyone has heard of what pledging a sorority is like, it is called hazing most of the time. but the pledging i went through was amazing. it was an experience i would never give back in a million years and i will never regret as long as i live. i spent 24 hours a day 7 days a week, for 7 weeks with 18 girls i knew nothing about and they are now truely my sisters. we have gotten so close and it is such an amazing bond. if anyone is questioning pledging a sorority or fraternity please ask me about it because i will make you want to do it so badly it hurts. i have never felt so much like i fit in and like i have finally found my place. it teaches u things about urself and other people that u will never learn. anyway regardless of pledging i wanted to discuss the real university life of education, not all the drinking and partying that goes on, but what goes on in the lecture halls, labs, discussion classrooms. i was not so happy with the education because i have always felt college to be the place where u finally get to learn what u want to learn, things u are interested in and it seemed to me, i was taking such boring classes that i had no conection to because of "requirements". Requirements is the most dreaded word in college curriculum. there are so many of them in order to graduate, or in order to declare a particular major, its appalling that i have to take so many extra classes just so i can get to the psychology classes which i want to take. now dont get me wrong, i love my school, i cant wait to go back and some of the classes that i was required to take were actually very interesting. anyway..point is...the first year is over, i survived and i learned so much about myself and now it is time to go back to reality. this is something a friend from school actually sent me...so those of u about to embark on the journey of college, wanting to know what it feels like or those of u who already been there and want to reminisce a little bit, here u go...

A year has past and now we stand on the brink of returning to a world where we are surrounded by the paradox of everything yet nothing being the same. In a few weeks we will reluctantly give our hugs and, fighting the tears, say goodbye to the people who were once just names on a sheet of paper to return to people that we hugged and fought tears to say goodbye to before we ever left. We will leave our best friends to return to our best friends. We will go back to places we came from and go back to the same things we did last summer and every summer before. We will come into town on that same familiar road, and even thought it has been months, it will seem like only yesterday.

As you walk into your old bedroom, every emotion will pass through you as you reflect on the way your life has changed and the person you have become. You suddenly realize that the things that were most important to you a year ago don't seem to matter so much anymore, and the things you hold highest now, no one at home will completely understand. Who will you call first? Where are you going to work? Who will be at the party Saturday night? What has everyone been up to? Who from school will you keep in touch with? How long before you actually start missing people barging in without calling or knocking? Who will get breadsticks with you at three in the morning? How long until you adjust to sleeping in a room by yourself, or how long before you realize your three best friends aren't in the bed next to your room?

Then you realize how much things have changed, you realize the hardest part of college is balancing the two completely different worlds you now live in, trying desperately to hold on to everything all the while trying to figure out what you have to leave behind. In the matter of one day's traveling time, we will leave our world of living next door to our best friends, walking across campus to eat, instant messenger, 8:00 classes, and perpetual procrastination to a world that will seem foreign to us despite the fact that we have lived in it for nineteen years.

But it is different now... We now know the meaning of true friendship. We know whom we have kept in touch with over the past year and whom we hold dearest to our hearts. We've left our high school worlds to deal with the real world. We have had our hearts broken, we've fallen in love, we've helped our best friends through the toughest times of their lives, something their even best friends at home couldn't be there for. We've stayed up all night just to be there for a friend. We've partied the night away, doing stupid stuff, but we were always there for each other afterwards. There have been times when we've felt so helpless being hours away from home when we know our families or friends needed us most, and there are times when we know we have made a difference.

A few weeks from now we will leave. A few weeks from now we take down our pictures, and pack up our clothes. No more going next door to do nothing for hours on end. We will leave our friends whose random emails and phone calls will bring us to laughter and tears this summer. We will take our memories and dreams and put them away for now, saving them for our return to this world.

A few weeks from now from now we will arrive. A few weeks from now we will unpack our bags and have dinner with our families. We will drive over to our best friend's house and do nothing for hours on end. We will return to the same friends whose random emails and phone calls have brought us laughter and tears over the past year. We will unpack old memories and dreams that have been put away for the past year.

A few weeks from now we will dig deep inside to find the strength and conviction to adjust to change and still keep each other close. And somehow, in someway, we will find our place between these two worlds.




so i am now adjusting, as i go into the summer, i will be teaching swimming lessons once again, and i will be getting back into the swing of things, but its an adjustment that takes a lot of work..especially with parents being around now.

for those of u who will be starting college at the end of this summer...welcome to your life, take as much as u can get out of it, take all of ur memories with u, meet as many new people as possible, laugh as much as possible, try new things, and dont be afraid to grow up...because ur gonna be forced to...