Recently, I asked my fellow Odyssey Content Creators to give me some thoughts or ideas they had about going to college at the beach since I actually go to a college in a beach town. I attend Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi (TAMUCC), which is located on its own little island actually. We are known as the Island University.

I honestly could not love my school anymore. Beautiful weather almost year round, so many different clubs and organizations to join, always something to do, and plenty of resources to use to use to be successful.

How do you balance being successful in school and having a beautiful distraction only minutes away?

Speaking for myself, I am taking eighteen hours this semester so a lot of the time I don’t have much time to go to the beach. I am a biomedical science major, so I have to focus very heavily on school work as I am trying to get into medical school and need to stay at the top of my class. I do use the beach as a reward for doing well on a test, or something to that nature.

When friends or family come down, usually it's planned, and I’ll make time to go then. I have studied on the beach before, and honestly, it’s not at all what it sounds like. Your book is full of sand, the wind is blowing super hard, it’s really not fun. Go to the beach when you’re not studying. Something I frequently am asked is how I focus so well and how I'm not at the beach all the time.

As I said earlier, I'm a heavy science major. Yes, I live in a coastal town; but I live in a coastal town to go to college. I'm here to get my education. You have to have priorities, and always remember why you're here.

The beach creates a super chill, relaxed vibe. Does that translate to school work?

The school always has so many things going on, that it creates a sense of relaxation and urgency at the same time if that makes sense. There’s always an event to go to on campus or sponsored by the campus if you want to relax or hang out with friends.

We have a man-made beach directly across the street from main campus called “University Beach” that is a really good for having somewhere to be in between classes, going to eat lunch, relaxing after a test, or all of the above. The university does have an overall tone of being super peaceful.

Have you always lived in an area close to the beach? If not was it an adjustment when you first started TAMUCC?

I have not always lived in a coastal town. I lived in a primarily country/rural town before moving down to Corpus Christi. Adjusting to the salty air, seagulls everywhere, rarely having a good hair day because of the humidity, all of this was a transition. The transition was honestly not hard though, it also made it easy that I was very excited to be living here. I was so excited to be going to TAMUCC, I was excited to finally be living in Corpus.

Do you still feel like you are a part of the Texas A&M family even though you are going to Corpus Christi?

I actually do not consider myself in the Texas A&M family very much or at all really. We are completely different schools, different colors, majors, traditions, mascots, sports teams. We are really only connected by the name and the name really only gives us our money and our rules for running our campus.

We are Islanders, our colors are blue and green, our mascot is Izzy the Islander, we have our own sixteen division 1 sports teams, we compete against A&M College station. Because we actually compete against “our family” so I don’t really feel too much in the Texas A&M family.

I am actually a tour guide at A&M-CC and the most aggravating question in the entire world I have ever received, is “So if y’all are Texas A&M – CC are y’all Aggies or Islanders?” We are separate schools, we only share a name and rules. We are not ‘Beach Aggies’, ‘Coastal Aggies’ anything like that.

I love attending Texas A&M University- Corpus Christi and I could not think of attending another school. This was truly my fit.