The College Experience

It’s 11:41 PM the night before this piece is due and I’m sitting at my desk, staring at my fan as it gently waves my hair in its breeze. The TV is whispering quietly to me in the background, “Hi I’m Julianne Hough and if you’re anything like me, your skin is not always clear.” I think that’s the only thing we have in common, Julianne. Nothing new here though, just back at putting my assignments off until the last minute. That’s the cornerstone of my college career. Obviously the bigger projects are started ahead of time but if I can wait, I will. Everything has worked out so far and I’m on track to graduate in the spring, so it hasn’t hurt me too much. Let’s go back to my freshman year though.

I lived in Illinois from 1994-2006 and Alabama from 2006-2014. I spent my freshman year at the University of Alabama, the football capital of the South. I don’t really care for football (I’m more of a basketball guy) but I did attend a handful of games and while they were entertaining, I did not enjoy the majority of my time there. Everything was so focused on football; it made me wonder why they even have classes there. I never really wanted to stay there after high school, but the out of state schools I applied to I didn’t get accepted into. I’m looking at you Northwestern. I’m still a little bitter. So, after my first year I made the decision to go somewhere else and I ended up at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Apart from that, I think my college career has been somewhat of the standard experience for most. I’ve been out late during the week and missed out on sleep, enjoyed just relaxing out home while watching something on TV and I’ve definitely gone to my fair share of concerts over the past few years. I don’t think it’s too stressful though, but then again, I try not to worry about much. That only complicates things for the worse. You can use the energy that you would spend worrying about things to do even greater at the task that is causing so much grief.

I believe that the most valuable thing that I’ve gotten from college is my childhood best friend back. Since I lived in Alabama for about ten years, he and I grew apart. We remained in contact but we weren’t as good of friends as we were as kids. We didn’t even reconnect until halfway through sophomore year, but it was at a time when we both needed someone. I didn’t make a ton of friends right away, and even though I had my girlfriend, I needed someone else. He was going to school at Miami University in Ohio and I had already made my move up to Milwaukee. He and his girlfriend of three years, who went to college together, broke up and he decided that he could not attend anymore. He decided to transfer to DePaul in Chicago and that brought him back to Illinois. He and I texted throughout his breakup but he didn’t ever get into it until we met up in person again. Since I was relatively close in Milwaukee, it was feasible to go visit on the weekends or for him to come up and visit as well. He came up to Milwaukee one weekend and it was like we never even skipped a beat. I was ten years old again. Neither of us had a care in the world, we were just catching up on all the years we missed. We went through all the college experiences that everyone is “supposed to have” within a couple days. We drank from half a bottle of hand-me-down Sauza tequila and we pulled out the GameCube and played Mario Party, just like the good old days. Then we got into a more serious topic. We talked about our lives and him getting over his girlfriend. He was a mess for a while but told me that just reconnecting made it so much easier for him. I’m glad it did. We covered it all. We still talk regularly now and even if we may go a while in between, we know that we are always there for each other.

When I went away to school, I thought I was going to meet a whole bunch of new people that would eventually become my new best friends, but it turns out that I was going to reconnect with my best friend from my childhood. If I never would have taken the risk and come up to Milwaukee, I don’t think we would have been as good of friends again. I believe that in college, you have to stay open to any and all experiences, because you never know who they might bring in your life or what might come of them.

It’s 1:21 AM and I’m finally finished. Another assignment checked off at the last minute and now Katy Perry is telling me how good I would look with demi matte black lipstick. Eh, maybe not for me Katy.