Dear Freshman Year,
Where do I begin? You have taught me so much about myself. Through you I learned how to live by myself, all the NC State student sections chants, and what I want to do with my life. You taught me that there is more to college than academia, and that somewhere inside of me there was a hippie, sorority girl waiting to be realized. You brought me the best friends and boyfriend a girl could ever ask for, and that without any of them college would not have been as amazing.
You brought me so many midnight adventures with kids I will never see again, so many crazy pictures from these adventures, and so many stories and memories to tell my friends back home. I learned that you can fit eight people in a Trailblazer, semi-comfortably, and how far I can make it when my gas light is on. It's crazy to think that before you I did not know how to talk to strangers, but that now I can carry on a conversation with anyone on the bus to class.
Through you, I found out that NC State really is the place for me. We can both agree I will always cheer for Baylor, but NC State is where I belong right now. This year I learned that my family is a huge part of my life, and that it will never stop hurting when I see how much my little brother has changed in my absence. If I did not experience you in Raleigh, this pain would always be much greater when I came home from Texas.
I now know that it's okay to change my mind about my major, and my future career. You have shown me that I can fit in somewhere, and that this place was has my engineering sorority, and that I will find the best big ever who is graduating too soon. And in these past nine months, you showed me that there will be at least sixty girls out there who have my back no matter what, and that they will love me for who I am.
Survive and Advance is now not just an ESPN special on our 1983 championship basketball team, it is a motto that applies to finals week, life, and Wolfpack sporting events to this day. During basketball season, you gave me a selfie with Trevor Lacey after storming the court for the stellar win over Duke. The history and love I have found at NCSU was brought to me by you, and I thank you for helping me become the Wolfpack fan I am today.
You taught me how to plan out my outfits to make it to the next break to avoid doing laundry at college, to celebrate getting a C on a physics test, and to not be afraid to ask for help. I realize now that coffee is the lifeline of an engineering student, and that I owe many late night study sessions to that wonderfully caffeinated beverage.
Most of all, freshman year, you turned me into the person I am today. I cannot thank you enough for helping me become more confident, and for helping me grow as a person. I would not change a thing about you; not the wing eating competition I had to enter, not the amount of calories I ate from eating too many Insomnia Cookies, and most of all not the people. I will miss you very much this summer, and cannot wait to see what sophomore year brings.
Yours Truly,
Amanda
