The environment here at the University of Denver is such a sharp contrast to the bubble of the private, Catholic high school of my last four years – and in the best way possible.

Life now is so different: different friends, classes, professors, meals and communal bathrooms containing hair that is not mine.

Where is mom’s made-from-scratch apple pie? Where is the subtle snore of dad asleep on the couch with the remote in a death grip?

But even I am different. I have grown up and now have to take care of myself.

I have to do my own laundry before all the washers are claimed.

I have to do homework before both my roommates return from class or else wait until they go to bed because I can’t concentrate with our diminutive TV showing another re-run of Two and a Half Men.

And I have to log out of Facebook before I waste another 15 minutes that could be spent writing that economics essay.

Yet these changes are what make college exciting. Every day is an adventure, another experience to be checked off my bucket list.

And a long bucket list it was, that is, until my first month at DU.

Eat New Mexican food, a mix of Mexican and Native American flavors, with a long-time friend at a little-known restaurant: check.

Go to Safeway to pick up some orange juice, but really to pass the time: check.

Rent a bicycle because I’m too lazy to walk to class in the mass communications building, at the southernmost end of campus: check.

Make plans to go latin dancing every Wednesday, only to cancel every Wednesday because of an unanticipated meeting: check.

Be intimidated by the adeptness of the ultimate Frisbee club team during weeknight practices: check.

Eat a falafel and fries at 2 a.m.: check.

Go to a free concert on Colfax: check.

Call in sick to go to a not-so-free concert in California: check.

Witness the ferocities of roller derby and cheer for competitors like Sister Mary Superego with my ZBT fraternity brothers: check.

Spill spaghetti sauce all over my khaki pants only to have to wash them myself – without mom’s help – later that week: check.

Be vomited on halfway through the Pioneer Pep Rally during Discoveries week: check, but you should have seen the girl in front of me.

If those are memories made in only the first month of college, I cannot imagine what interesting experiences I will be writing home about next month, even next year.