I remember sitting in my college counselor’s office as a high school senior hearing the words “you’ll just know”. Know what? Here I am an overwhelmed senior who it's trying to figure out where she’ll spend the next four years or my life and you’re telling me this decision will be based on some cinderella if the shoe fits moment? Despite my better judgement I listened to her, and proceeded to tour colleges in search of that special feeling. Every time I finished a college tour I’d ask myself if this is it. I could see myself attending a lot of the colleges I looked at, but I still was searching for this aha moment. I toured 13 colleges to be exact, and never found this elusive feeling but I did end up at the perfect college for me.
St. Lawrence was the last college I visited and my dad had to drag me into the car for the six-hour ride. I hadn’t even toured the school prior to applying, and now with my acceptance letter in tow, I headed up to the great white north. At that point in time, I was pretty sold on the fact that I would end up crossing over the Mason-Dixon line for college, leaving my home state of New Hampshire and trading in my wicked's for yall’s. I was confused to why my dad thought I would want to go to school 20 minutes from the Canadian border when all this time I had been trying to escape the northeast
I never got “the feeling” when I toured SLU but I did like it enough to buy a sweatshirt at the bookstore before we left. Three days later, sitting in my boarding school dorm room I decided, for reasons that are still partially unknown, that I wanted to go to SLU. I pushed my concerns about not having that special feeling aside and took a risk.
Everyone talks about that special feeling you get when you finally tour the college meant for you, but personally, I think that feeling is an urban legend. For some people, it happens during their first tour, and for other it happens during their final days as a senior. Either way, everyone experiences that moment when you realize that you are totally, unconditionally in love with your college. If we're being honest St. Lawrence makes this process of falling in love especially easy, and I think all student and alumni can back me up on this.
As a St. Lawrence student there are many opportunities for SLU to wiggle its way into your heart. This revelation might happen when you're sitting in your dorm talking with your friends, having a really great pub quesadilla, or at Dana brunch on a Sunday morning. Maybe it happens when you’re walking home from the Tick Tock with your friends, rushing for a sorority, or on the bus ride to Titus. No matter how it happens, it’ll happen you just have to let it happen.
Personally, I fell in love with SLU on the first warm spring day. It was one of those days when campus seems to be pulsating with this revived energy it has been missing. Riding my bike through campus blaring Jack Johnson on my speaker I looked around at everyone hanging out outside and it hit me; I love my college. In that moment, I finally got the feeling my college counselor had been talking about and it was worth the wait; St. Lawrence had been the right choice all along.
So my advice to high school seniors; if you didn’t get “the feeling” at your college just give it a chance. The feeling will creep up on you when you least expect it. Have a little faith, and take a risk like I did it might just be the best decision you’ll ever make.
