Thought I should give this a try...

As I'm sure many of you know, or will come to know, college is a major part of anyone's life privileged enough to experience it. The best years of your life. According to my dad, at least.

And it seems like even years later, many people still dwell on its ups and downs. You'll never get those years back. I wish I had gone away for college. I wish I had stayed home. I wish I had studied harder. I wish I had had more fun, gone out more. Everyone still seems to tear themselves apart on their regrets about college. Why is that? Obviously, whatever was going on at the time seemed to be exactly what each of these people needed in their life.

All I know is, hearing all of these regrets being whispered in my ear all summer long definitely made me apprehensive for when school finally came along in the fall. I had no idea what to expect. All I knew is that on that fateful, hot August day, my life would be forever turned upside down. This definitely wasn't going to be high school anymore. Not going to lie, I was intimidated. I was going from a school where I was in the honors, elite, you name it. But now...I was going to be with people just like me. The same clubs, organizations, the same intelligence. What if I fell behind? What if everyone was smarter than me and I failed out? What if the whole it's-a-lecture-hall-with-hundreds-of-people-no-one-cares thing made me lose sight of my education? What if...

Not only did the whole education thing seem intimidating, but hey, I was going to be living away. I had never been away from home without my parents for more than 10 days or so. How would I be surviving on my own, stranded, independent?

And not only that, but I was dorming with my best friend. With the same major. Who's competitive. Would it end our friendship? I really hoped not. But I couldn't help but remember my Honors Chem teacher pulling us aside and saying it was a horrible idea to room together. He claimed it ended his and his best friends' friendship. But we both dismissed it, he always seemed kind of crazy anyway. But still, his words haunted me in the back of my mind...

And on top of all of this, I was having boy drama. I consider myself fairly independent, but when I'm hooked...I fall hard. And of course, as my luck would have it, I only started to like this boy that has liked me for junior year and then senior year on Valentine's day of senior year. So we started dating. Sortof. Fully aware we would be hundreds of miles apart in just 6 months. Bad idea. He left for school a week or two before I was set to leave. Of course, both of us were too scared to bring up the "What are we doing during college?" conversation, so he left without any establishment on either of our relationship statuses. So what should I do if I meet a guy? What was my sortof-boyfriend even thinking? Was he dating other girls?

I didn't know how 'out-there' I should put myself. I still wanted the boy from home, but unsure if he wanted me, I didn't just want to wait around for him, watching college pass me by. Sigh. The dilemma.

Needless to say, college was looking inconvenient. Life was going great and I was having an amazing summer with amazing friends and an amazing boyfriend. What was going to be ahead of me? Would I still be friends with all of these people? How would my relationship with my parents and my sister be changed? Would I make my family proud?

I plan on using this blog to document the trials and tribulations of my college experience. I'll discuss the stress of family, dormmates, friends at school, friends from high school, boys, partying, and of course, schoolwork itself. I hope to serve as someone for those who haven't experienced college to live through vicariously, as someone high schoolers can go to to gain insight for what they're in for, and as someone who can allow the older folk to remember their experiences. I also hope to be one that college students themselves can relate to. Please leave messages for suggestions, tips, and comments.