I wake up in the morning and have no clue where I am. It still feels weird to be in such a small room that is so different from the one that I grew up in. To be fair, I am only six hours away from home, but it feels like I am in a completely different world. I have lived in Missouri for 11 of my 18 years and feel ill-prepared to behave like an adult -- check the mail, go grocery shopping, do my laundry. Who knew that you had to separate clothes by color? I definitely didn't.
Each morning, I have to remind myself that I now live with people that are NOT required to love me, like my oh-so-lucky family, and I must behave in a civil manner no matter how tired I feel. Each morning, I walk through my bedroom door without having to step over my ridiculously fluffy cat. And each morning, I am also thankful that I did not sign up for any 8 a.m. classes.
Already, I feel emotionally drained. Welcome Week was a blur of names, faces, and no sleep. Already, I am staying up super late to do homework that I am too social to accomplish during the day. And already, I am realizing that I took my mom's cooking for granted. Never again will I complain about having to eat my vegetables!
Some things are extremely exciting. For instance, I had my first experience at Moe's! For those of you, like me from last week, that had no idea who or what Moe's is, it's the Mexican companion to Subway. (By the way, I loved it. Shout out to my roommate, Emily Craft, for taking me on such a delicious adventure!)
Some things are less exciting. Like those awkward moments when you greet someone that you totally met last night at the Howdy Party but they don't remember you at all. Other times, you say unintentionally embarrassing stuff to the cute guy that you sat next to during class. Or when you want to go take a nap but you really don't want to walk all the way back to the Heritage dorms because it is just too far and you are too tired.
My last two years in high school certainly did not help me in one regard: Restarting at the bottom of the social totem pole. Going from the top dog of Camdenton High School in Missouri to a freshman at Union University is a hard transition. Inside of every freshman is the fear of looking awkward in front of upperclassmen. We desperately feel the need to look cool in front of these potential mentors and the top "Bulldogs" on campus. Although these fears may be misplaced and misguided, we all just can't help but believe our lives will be over if an upperclassman sees us trip over the uneven sidewalks on the way to Jennings.
However, there is at least one silver lining in all of this craziness; even for the introverted students, like myself. No, it isn't the beautiful sunsets that we get to witness every night or the delicious food in Cobo or "The Brew" or "The Bar," or whatever it is that I am supposed to call it! It's the fact that we all get to take this crazy adventure together. The next four years will shape us into different people and it is totally okay if we change friend groups or change our major or change our major again. We can always look around and know that we are truly having an adventure of a lifetime.
