Registration and Other News.

Evidently, Purdue refuses to believe in the "freshman 15."

Last Tuesday was the big day: registration (or STAR as they call it at Purdue).  My parents and I drove to good ol' West Lafayette Monday night to get up bright and early on Tuesday for a longgggg day of walking. 

The three most important things I learned:

1. It will take me about 12 minutes to walk to the academic campus from my residence hall.

2. There is no dining court in my residence hall.

3. My residence hall is located right next to the rec center.

I mean, I'm not complaining.  If I have to walk such a long distance to my classes, I'll be healthier.  If I walk past the rec center daily, I'll be more inclined to work out.  If I have to walk outside in a blizzard just to satiate my hunger, I'll be less likely to eat as often.  But still.  I'll miss the luxury of a fridge just steps away without having to brave the elements to eat.

To further educate you on my wonderful experiences, I will provide you a list of random tidbits that happened to me or that I discovered during the day:


1. In college, there is a lot of walking.  And by a lot, I don't mean a lot.  I mean A LOT!  My classes are conveniently not located near each other all the time, and neither were the buildings we needed to be in for STAR.  Though I wore shoes that I had walked around many times before, I got some blisters on my toes.  Consequently, I walked around barefoot on the cement for awhile to give my toes a break.  Which just gave me more blisters on the bottoms of my feet.  Which caused me to limp around like an idiot for most of the day.  That's just what I need; my fellow classmates seeing me look stupid before school even begins.  Oh well.


2. I took a Spanish placement exam while I was there that day.  It was online and only took about half an hour, and I got 12 Spanish credits out of it, so I'm currently enrolled in a Spanish 30100 class.  I sincerely hope I'm not the only freshman in that class. How intimidating.


3. I am soooo incredibly lucky: no 7:30 am classes for meeee!!   My earliest is 8:30 on M,W,F.


4. I joined a club already!  It's called PASE, or Purdue Alumni Student Experience.  It seems super chill, and all the activities are fun and social-related so it's super low commitment.  I'm also in the Ross Ade Brigade, which is the cheering section at football games.  Right up my ally! 


5. I'm stocked up on Purdue gear!  When I left West Lafayette, I had accumulated 4 t-shirts, a sweatshirt, a fleece jacket, and a hoodie.  That'll probably only last me a couple days to be honest.


6. I haven't even started class, and we already have to read a book.  It's called The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind.  We have to read it and do an assignment on it before classes start.  Yippee...


7.  We ate in the dining court at Earhart while there, and boy oh boy will I be eating in style in a couple of months!  There was soooo much to choose from.  And you can eat as much as you want.  On second thought, that freshman 15 seems to be teasing me right now...


8. I had my first Den Pop while there too, which are seemingly famous in West Lafayette.  More good news?  There is red cream soda in all the soda fountains there!  I tried it for the first time, and boy oh boy was it delicious!  Trying new things has already started to pay off!


9. For those curious as to what my classes are this year, they are as follows:

•      Biology for Elementary School Teachers (which I have to contract as an honors class)
•      College of Education DeVito Scholarship Program I (a research opportunity for me and 7 other Education majors)
• Introduction to Educational Technology and Computing (also contracted as an honors class)
• United States History since 1877
• Mathematics for Elementary Teachers I
• Spanish Level V

They should be pretty interesting!

10.  Again, I'm so incredibly happy that my best friend, Brooke, is going to school with me.  We even took some pictures together while at STAR!

In other news, I'm on the hunt for a new laptop, a graduation gift from my parents.  I'm going PC which I may regret in the future, but for now it will do.  It's cheaper anyways.  I just want some good speakers for DANCE PARTIES, which are inevitable where Brooke and I are concerned.

Also, thanks to modern technology, I've gotten to see and talk to Jenna, the friend that left for Utah, a couple times via Skype!  Though our computers don't like each other much and keep disconnecting us, it's so wonderful to see her and chat with her.  She's adjusting well and has already made some friends, which isn't much of a surprise because she's so bubbly.  But sometimes it just makes me miss her more!!

My First Goodbye.

Nobody said it would be easy, but I never wanted it to be this hard.

One of my close friends left for college today.  It's only June, and I already had to say goodbye.  I keep telling myself that I have two more months before I have to deal with the difficult stuff: the goodbyes, the tears, the sense of loneliness that will inevitably sink in when I'm thrust into a crowd of unfamiliar faces upon arrival at Purdue.  But I had to face it a little too soon.  I'm not ready to say goodbye.


My friends and I had a surprise going away sleepover for her the other night, so it was nice to have a last "hurrah" as a group.  We were a little too silly, ate a little too much, and stayed up a little too late.  But it was a fun goodbye nevertheless.  Today was the more intimate one.  As I sat on her bed and watched her pack some last minute items into an already crammed suitcase, I realized that this was it.  Since she is going to Brigham Young in Utah, I won't be seeing her until winter break.  As in December.


She had been bracing us for this day for months, continually counting down the days when she would begin this new stage in her life.  But in the back of my mind, it wasn't real.  This day just did not exist in my warped sense of time.  And suddenly, it was here.  It was like running from something and watching it over your shoulder, until all of a sudden you smack into a brick wall.  Okay, so maybe it's not that dramatic.  But it might as well be.


So I said goodbye in a whirlwind of tears and hugs, and now she's in Utah, seemingly a world away.  I'm so excited for her, but I'm going to miss her like crazy.


Perhaps it was good to have a goodbye come about so early.  Maybe I'll be better prepared for when I have to say my farewell to the rest of my friends.  But I got to thinking: I am so incredibly lucky that my best friend is going to Purdue with me as well.  I realized there was no way in heck I'd be able to say goodbye to her.  It would be excruciating.


Well, one down and too many more to go.  Let's hope I don't fall apart at the seems before I even get to school!

 

So Here We Are.

4 years.

1,460 days.

35,040 hours.

2,102,400 minutes.

126,144,00 seconds.

Time flew by.  One second I was a freshman in high school, the lowly man (or woman, I should say) on the totem pole.  Now, here I am, summer before my freshman year in college. 

It truly is crazy to think about.  Everyone always tells you to enjoy the time you have in high school before it's gone, but does anyone really take that advice to heart when they're standing at the front doors of a giant prison-like building, realizing that they're going to spend the next four years there?  Do those words really penetrate your brain when you're studying for that AP Chemistry test or hanging out with friends before a football game?

The general consensus is no.  No, you don't constantly remind yourself to enjoy high school.  It either happens or it doesn't.  Luckily, I did enjoy my experience as a Normal West Wildcat...most of the time.  But this isn't about reminiscing on my high school glory days.  Instead, I want this blog to be an "updater" of sorts.  For anyone who is crazy enough to follow my "college kid" endeavors and experiences--from doing my own laundry to figuring out how the heck I'm not going to gain 15 pounds--good luck.  I can't promise this blog will be good.  Okay, I can guarantee you that it won't be.  But if you're at all interested in seeing how my life progresses these next few years at Purdue University and how I'm growing up to be a "big kid," this is for you.

Enjoy!