Depending on the school that you may attend or be looking at attending, some may be large enough to offer summer trips. Now, if you're anything like I used to be, you're thinking "Oh, I don't need this trip, I have my friends already and I'll make more when I need to." But I'm here to tell you that you're wrong.

Go one the summer adventures, or any adventures for that matter, that are offered. Especially if you are going to be a freshman.

My boyfriend met his roommate and one of his other close friends on their trip.

On mine, I learned about my peers that I would be journeying through five years with within my major, this as well as made a few connections of my own.

Here at West Virginia University there are many and many adventure trips to choose from, all ranging in the people you could be with, the places you can go, and how long you might be away. Your school could be doing something even similar, look into it.

On my trip specifically, I was on the Odyssey trip (no intended coincidence, however ironic), and I spent five days around WVU and traveling the state of West Virginia itself with my intended Forensic and Investigative Science major peers. On this trip we traveled using bins, made our own food, camped, did multiple outdoor activities, and reflected on ourselves.

When asked what my favorite parts of this trip were, I still hands-down, will answer with visiting Blackwater Falls and reflecting on my past journeys underneath the Seneca Rock formations. In visiting these places, I found a sense of belonging to my state, a new form of acceptance. Although I have called West Virginia my home for the last 19 years, I found a new meaning to the word and comfort in knowing that although I was traveling away for my schooling, I never needed to worry because I would be okay.

I was home.

Although I have since changed my major and lost touch with most of the people on my trip, I can never say that my time there didn't benefit me. It was amazing to see people from California traveling all the way across the country to be in my state for only five days for this trip. I truly watched part of the community of the class of 2022 come together. This was just the beginning of my time here and the first of many eye-opening moments to come.

So, if you gather nothing more out of this than you could have a great time or a lousy time on a trip with complete strangers in a place completely unfamiliar to you, at least decide that in spite of that, you will go. Go and explore the world you are around or about to enter. There is no way to regret it.