When I was growing up I was extremely introverted. If someone met me now, they would never expect that. At eighteen years old, I am pretty outgoing. But what about when I was little?

I was the kid that would fake sick at a sleepover just so I could come home and sleep in my own bed. This used to happen all the time. It would be no big deal if I was just spending the night around the block. But I remember at least one time I faked sick when I went camping with a friend over two hours away. I made the girl’s mom drive me all the way back home.

I was such a mama’s girl and I have no idea why. Of course, I love my mom but I used to never want to leave her side. I have no idea what changed.

When I was in eighth grade, I went on a class trip to Washington DC. My parents were supposed to go with me as chaperones just like my mother went when my sister went on the same trip. But my dad got put on a waiting list to be a chaperone. I ended up in a group with one of my friends’ mom. We went to DC for four days.

Somehow, I survived. Shocker, I know.

Maybe that was what made me changed in my head. I had gone to another state without my parents and I was okay.

When I was a sophomore in high school, I went to Myrtle Beach with my best friend. Oddly enough, I don’t think I ever gave it a second thought.

I had begun to spread my wings.

My junior year of high school, I went to Gulf Shores with their family. Again, there was never a second thought about it.

Then came the summer before senior year; the summer I visited Alma College for the first time.

I spent a week at Alma College the summer before my senior year. That is when I decided I wanted to go to Alma for college. This shocked my parents.

Firstly, they expected me to go to Wayne State just like my sister. Secondly, they never expected me to go away to school. Up until the day I left for school, my parents always expected me to change my mind about going away to school.

They never expected me to travel so far for school. They were surprised and were happy that I wanted to spread my wings.

Then I got hospitalized. I got put in the hospital less than a month after arriving at school. I began to regress to the mama’s girl that I used to be. I wanted to go home and stay there. I wanted to drop out of Alma. That broke mine and my parents’ hearts. I wanted so badly to go to away to Alma and then there I was, crying in a hospital bed, just wanting to go home.

Luckily, I snapped out of that thought. But, I still stay in contact with my parents probably more than any other college student.