College: My Experience Thus Far | Reality

As I sit here in bed, in my second apartment, during my third year of college, I wonder why I haven't talked about my college experience yet. Maybe because it has been such an overall unique experience that I didn't know how to verbalize it? Either way, here I am fellas, a junior in college, and here is my experience so far:

Junior year of high school I was determined I was going to school on the East Coast. I was going to go to school in New York, love everything, and be the happiest I had ever been. Then reality set in. I realized that as I was growing up, so was everyone around me. Moving across the country would not be the best decision for me because I would be a few days drive, or a 5 hour flight away, from the people that mean the most to me. So now the choice of if I wanted to go to school in Northern California or in LA. I applied to a total of 13 schools and got accepted to 6, I believe. Some of them I wondered why I even applied. I would have never been happy there and nothing felt right about it. One thing I regret about this process was visiting most schools after I had applied, with the exception of some Bay Area schools, like Berkeley. So I had my top 5 or so schools picked, and the rest were all back up schools. I was offered several scholarships but was denied acceptance to my two top schools. The two schools I actually wanted to go to, the two schools I dreamed about. Reality. A few weeks after I got wait listed/denied for these schools - I was wait listed at my top school in LA and they would not notify me in time, and denied my top choice in the Bay Area - I went to visit the school I currently attend in San Francisco. I fell in love. Something clicked with this campus, and the past spring break trips I had taken with my mom and aunt all came rushing back to me. I felt at home in this city. It was a city I could explore. It was something new, it was perfect. I accepted. My best friend and I had both been accepted into this school, but we did not want that to influence each others decisions. She visited the school, and two weeks later I visited. We decided not to say anything to each other until we had made our decision. By some miracle, we had both chosen the same school for completely different yet the same reasons. I would be a 45 minute flight, or 6 hour drive away from my parents and would be rooming with my best friend.
[I will have a whole separate blog post about living with my best friend, roommates, and my on-campus/off-campus living experiences.]

Freshman year was a lot. A lot of fun, a lot of studying, a lot of tears, a lot of friends, a lot of memories, a lot of exploring, a lot of independence. I had to learn how to budget money (did I?), I had to learn how to manage my time (sort of), I had to learn how to do laundry, I had to learn how to discipline myself, I had to branch out, I had to figure out who I was and what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. I went into college undeclared. I guess I filled out the application wrong because I am almost positive I put down Sociology. Anyways, I was still set on the "Sociology" track so I took my first Soc class. SOC 101, Sociological Theory. I was not having it. This was during the time of the Occupy Movement and I could tell just from the different essays that I could not do this for the rest of my 4 years in college. My first semester I became a charter member of Kappa Alpha Theta at my university, and I can honestly say that joining a sorority, joining this sorority, was the greatest decision I have made thus far. It was my home away from home, and nothing that is portrayed in movies or shows. I now had my best friend/roommate and all of my sisters by my side. College was becoming more and more of a reality every day. By the end of Freshman year I knew who my true friends were, who my friends back home were, and a basic idea of what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. I had my first internship working on a political campaign, and declared my major as Politics.

Sophomore year was a total whirlwind. It went by so extremely fast I do not even know where to start. I was disaffiliated coming back from summer break due to my position on Panhellenic Council, leaving me in charge of the PR and Recruitment aspects of Panhellenic Formal Recruitment. Craziness. You do not realize how much you miss something until you no longer have it. This was my case with my sorority sisters. Not having that support system beside me was like the first few weeks of Freshman year all over again, except this time I wasn't living in the dorms, I was living in an apartment. My very first apartment. The apartment I will always look back on with my amazing roommate. Yes, that same roommate, my best friend. "The Backroom." It was an upgrade from the dorms, a downgrade from our current apartment, but who can tell the future? Not us! We were four blocks away from campus, and we had no complaints. Except the fact that it was a studio and a bit small, but hey, beggars can't be choosers right? It was either this or living in the PanHandle. You think I'm kidding... We realized that apartment hunting in the city is not very easy for college students.  My Sophomore year after disaffiliation, I got my two amazing littles, one in the fall and one in the spring. I made new friends, new memories, and lost some other friends. Reality. I declared my minor in Public Relations, got a job at the law school, made more friends, decided I was going to study abroad, and also decided that it was time to move on from our first apartment. But first, Spain. [I blogged most of my trip in Madrid/Barcelona so click here to read about it!]

I was halfway done with college. I had received GPAs all above a 3.4, I had enjoyed all of my classes, and I actually had a feel for the city I lived in, the school I attended, and the people I called my friends. Coming back, I was about to start my third year of college, with a major I was interested in, and a minor I loved. I just recently moved in to my second apartment, and will be doing different blog posts about my apartment, my roommate, living on and off campus, and just living in San Francisco and on our own as a whole! I hope this post gave you some insight into my first two years of college!