This past fall I headed off to college at Florida State University knowing only a handful of people there. I knew that I needed to get involved in some sort of group on campus because I wanted to meet more people and I figured that was the easiest way. The first group that I joined was the Baptist Collegiate Ministry which is a religious organization that had sent me a flyer in the mail. A high school friend and I decided to go to their freshman barbeque to see if we wanted to join. When they passed around clipboards to join small groups we signed up. We went to our first meeting and asked another friend from high school to come as well. We really felt like we fit in with these people and we quickly became friends and decided to get involved. This ministry gave me some of my first friends on campus and gave me some different activities to be a part of, such as small groups on Monday nights, worship services on Tuesday nights, $1 Lunches, and a Panama City Beach retreat. These events allowed me to have fun and make friends instead of stressing about school all the time.

The second organization that I joined was the FSU Rowing Club. This club was quite a big commitment but I had seen my sister join the Rowing Club at UF and the amazing times she had. I joined and went to practice every morning at 5:00 where I met some of the greatest people ever. We had to carpool to the lake every morning which allowed us some time outside of practice to talk and to get to know each other which I am grateful for because I made some awesome friends. While the friendships weren’t necessarily instantaneous but once we became friends, we were bonded. It allowed me to find friends that weren’t in my major and I may never have talked to otherwise. Besides giving me friends rowing also gave me a handle on my schedule. It seems odd that adding more to my work flow would make me more productive but it did.

Once I got into my pattern of waking up every morning at 4:30, it seemed that I got more work done because I knew I had to get to bed early so I wouldn’t be exhausted. I was in bed by 9:30 most nights because I got most of my work done during the day. It kept me from spending too much time on my phone or Netflix and kept me focused on my real priorities. Rowing also kept me from going home every weekend. We had regattas some weekends but if we didn’t we were expected to come to practice. This kept me from making the almost three-hour drive home a lot because I knew that missing too many practices could potentially keep me from getting in a boat for our next race. At first I hated that I was unable to go home whenever I wanted but because I couldn’t I was able to hang out and bond more with my rowing friends. Also, when I could go home it was that much more exciting because it wasn’t a common occurrence.