College. It seems like all the way back to elementary school my teachers have been telling me how the work I was doing and the information I was learning was all to prepare me for college. College was a concept that I knew very little about, though everyone told me how important it was to prepare. As I walked on to the DU campus, my new home, on the first day, I was amazed. All around me I saw students and their parents all hurriedly running from place to place in a frenzy of maps and schedules. A part of me couldn’t wait until my parents left so I could start enjoying my new life as a college student, while another part of me, though smaller, wanted my parents to stay and calm my fears.

Now, a few weeks in to the school year, college life has become much more natural. It feels like I have been here for months already, though many things still manage to amaze me. The most obvious difference between high school and college is the extreme lack of parental figures. Suddenly, it is up to me to decide what time to come home, when to go to bed, and when to work on my homework. I can stay out all night on a school night without even having to call anyone to check in! Exciting as this is though, the responsibility is enormous! On Tuesday of only the second week of school, one of my new friends from my hockey team took me to her house for a fun night of fun and meeting new people. I had a great time until about 3 am when I finally made it home and realized the mountain of homework that lay before me, and how soon my 10:00 am class would arrive. I have gotten lucky though, that my earliest class is at 9:00, and the other days are at 10:00. Somehow, I managed to get all my homework done and survive the next day. Of course, like most freshman, I am a very slow learner and have proceeded to make the same mistake on many of my nights here. Apparently, one of the first lessons to be learned in college is how to appear awake in class after having only having a few hours of sleep.

Overall, everything about college so far has been amazing! All of my fears upon arrival have diminished. My roommate and I get along great, though she would probably like it if I cleaned up a little bit. I live on a floor full of wonderful people with a variety of personalities that are always entertaining. Classes are tough, but nothing like the difficulty that I had imagined after the rumors I’d heard. I’ve found a variety of different clubs that fit my interests, from alpine club to circle k to the club tennis and hockey teams. Being away from home is difficult, and I do miss my family, my friends, free laundry, and the clothes, posters, pictures, and other stuff I forgot to pack. Luckily though, home is just a phone call away, and my parents have been great about shipping boxes of everything I left behind.