Before we begin, let me make one thing clear: this article is not meant to harbor any malice or ill will towards California University of Pennsylvania. Quite the opposite actually. About five years ago, as a freshman, I had no idea what this tiny little college town by the river had in store for me. I didn't know about the friends that would become family. I didn't know the highs and lows that come with figuring things out on your own for the first time. I didn't know about the long nights and the early mornings and losing sleep over things both awful and wonderful. I didn't know about any of this but I did know I had made the right decision. I love the college I got my degree from and I will always be proud to be a Vulcan.

That being said, every college comes with its own set of myths or stereotypes. You hear them as a senior in high school or your freshman year when you first set foot on campus.

These are the lies Cal U told me.

1. "Everyone stays on campus for the weekend!"

Cal U is what we call a "Backpack School," meaning Monday through Friday it's a fairly active campus. Monday through Friday we run from this class to this club meeting to this event until we pass out in our beds after trying to turn all of our assignments in by 11.59 p.m. Come 5 p.m. Friday night though? The campus is as quiet as other campuses would be during a holiday break. Friday night through Sunday night, people pack up and go home. The reason being that there just isn't much to do on or off campus during the weekend. Or so people think. Those smart enough to stick out the first few bouts of homesickness will realize there are actually things to do on the weekend in Cal. Be it house parties, wine nights with your roommates, going to the Saturday football games--there are things to do on campus. It's just a well kept secret. No one stays because we're not as big of a party school as WVU or Pitt, but we have our fair share of fun.

2. "Reading Day is (was) for studying."

First off, if you're even old enough to remember Reading Day, you'll fondly remember that entire day off students got the Monday before finals week, not as a time you spent studying and catching up on reading (although the smart ones probably do), but as a day you either: day drank or nursed a hangover by getting brunch in the Rush and sleeping all day. Probably why Reading Day was done away with in the first place, but it is what it is. Or was. Reading Day was a day of hanging out with your friends who weren't totally driven insane by the impending doom of finals week, and being as lazy as only college students can be. Reading Day was a beautiful thing. (Bonus points if you're old enough to remember Mission Day and Mission Day Eve).

3. "We'll have a Chick-Fil-A soon."

Even though this won't count for some, for me it was the biggest rumor I'd heard since my sophomore year of college. I remember hearing about it in the old cafeteria where you used to wait in that cluster fuck of people for your salad and wrap. "Yeah," my friend said enthusiastically, "We're getting a Chick-Fil-A NEXT YEAR!". I couldn't have been more excited. My white girl love for chicken sammies and waffle fries will never die. I was so looking forward to eating nuggets that weren't from AVI while I was hungover. That was three years ago. Only now, just as I have graduated do they FINALLY put it in. It's for the best though. If the Freshman 15 wasn't real before, it will be now. Sorry Class of 2020.

4. "The Wal-Mart is really easy to get to, grocery shopping is so convenient!"

Nope. Nope nope nope. Putting it bluntly - getting to Wal-Mart is a pain in the ass. Even if you have a friend or a roommate with a car - it's still awful because you're broke and you still have to pay them for gas. The university does make efforts, with the Vulcan Flyer running to Wal-Mart, but unless you live directly on campus, lugging your groceries through town with only what you can carry to last you a month is the world's most inconvenient shopping expedition a college kid can put up with. Add to that carrying your groceries through town to your off campus apartment in either the blazing heat or freezing tundra (the only two temperatures California, PA experiences) and you mind as well just spend your grocery money at the liquor store. At least you'll be a lot happier.

5. "We go by Harvard on the Mon."

Oh do we? I've yet to see evidence of that. Separately, there have been various students in each graduating class that went above and beyond and did work to graduate with GPA's worthy of Harvard, but for the rest of us? That Harvard on the Mon thing died out pretty quickly since I was a freshman. Does anyone even know what it meant? Because let me tell you, when you've come across multiple guys peeing outside of Wood St. Bar, you don't get that Ivy League feel. But I've never been to Harvard, so I guess who am I to judge?

There is one thing I was told when I went to my freshman orientation that was true though. One thing that will echo in my mind forever as being the truest of the true: Cal U For Life. It's not just four (or five in my case) years of classes and parties. It's four years of heartbreak and happiness you never knew was possible; all nestled in these tiny, trashy, beautiful and wonderfully flawed little college town so many of us came to call home. I love Cal U and I always will. California, dear forever in our memory.