10 Things I Learned my Freshman Year

 My senior year of college starts in a little over one week. Every time I realize this, I am amazed to think that in two semesters my entire undergrad experience will be over. High school was fun but college has been such a a blast, I'm not ready for it to be over! Even though I know that the friendships I've made will not end after graduation, I'm not exactly ready to enter the real world. Even if the 'real world' just means more schooling at graduate school.

Thinking ahead reminds me of where I was three years ago, just about the start my freshman year. I even wrote a little paragraph of things the summer before college--what I was looking forward to, and things I was worried about. Looking back now it's almost funny how insignificant my worries were.

Your freshman is a very special time in your life. For the first time you're leaving home, living with a bunch of strangers, and making all of your own decisions. There are best friends to make, amazing courses to take-- college is where you start to solidify and defend what you think and believe about the world.

Without further ado, here are ten things I learned my first year of college!


--Should you spontaneously dye your hair because you have a coupon and it's some day that ends in a y?
The answer is always yes. College is a very peculiar time in your life. It is also one of the only times in your life that you can dye your hair bright red/any other obnoxious/unnatural color and it will be alright. You don't have a job to look 'professional' for.

My short lived red hair phase :)

--Best friends take time to make. 
Your freshman year is a crazy period of time where you meet people by the bushel. However, those sometimes awkward ice-breaker events help you make a bunch of acquaintances. It's over the course of the semester that these acquaintances grow into friendships. Even in the separate universe that college sometimes seems to exist, these friendships take time to grow.

Bonding over Quidditch! One of the best parts of this photo isn't shown: I was playing Keeper which meant I got an awesome cape.

--You should start your homework sometime before the night before it's due. 
In high school my classes were never very challenging. I approached my first semester of college expecting the difficulty level to be reminiscent of high school.
Well I was in for a surprise. College courses turned out to be far more challenging than I had expected. This was a great thing-- being challenged is always fun-- but my attitude towards homework took a bit of time to be updated. I sometimes cringe to think about how I didn't even start my physics homework till the night before it was due (spoiler alert: that didn't turn out well). I quickly changed my approach and things got better from there.

This is the best way to study for a physics exam. Perhaps not the most productive, but the yummiest.

--Say yes to new activities. 
Sometime early on freshman year my roommate mentioned she was going to watch a TV show I had never heard of with some people in our student union. The TV show sounded weird but I figured I might as well tag along. The TV show turned out to be Dr. Who-- now one of my favorite TV shows. Not only did I find a really cool show, it also turned out to be a great bonding activity with people I just barely knew.

Side note: This was in September and it was probably like 80 degrees outside. However, this was a scary episode of Dr. Who, thus the cuddling and blanket ;)

--If you see a sign at a local coffee house proclaiming that live Irish music would be performed that night you should drop all homework/other obligations and go. 
Even if the sign turned out to be a lie, hanging out with new friends was worth pushing off homework till later.

--Sign up for (almost) every club/activity/group that looks mildly interesting. 
Freshman year is a temporally amazing time. Somehow I managed to: (a) be in the wind ensemble, (b) take piano lessons, (c) be in a small ensemble, (d) sing in my church's choir, (e)play some in the orchestra, (f)join the Qudditch team (sometime I don't like to admit to, but since I've already blogged about it, I figure all hope is lost), (g)join my church's college group, (f) and, you know, classes and that.
Looking back I'm not sure how I didn't die but the special thing about freshman year is that while your classes might be hard, the work load is nothing compared to the coming years. You're getting time to focus on making friends-- something that will disappear as college goes on.

I had the pleasure of playing two clarinets-- at the same time. Just kidding, but these are a B-flat and an E-flat clarinet I was able to play in the orchestra. Lucky for me I always had enough rests to switch between the two clarinets during the pieces.

--Movie nights are the best. 
I recently read an article that advocated not bringing a TV to college your freshman year because if you do you'll be glued to the TV and miss out on life. Which sounds like a personal problem with me. I brought a TV freshman year and I'm glad I did. My roommate and I rarely watched it but it was great for Friday movie nights. We would buy a bunch of junk food and pull down our mattresses to lay on the floor, invite friends over, and have a good time.

Momma Mia night!

--Don't neglect your studies
Freshman year I got B's in classes where I easily could have gotten A's simply because I put minimal effort into them. Freshman year is where you learn how to balance having a life and doing well in your courses-- it takes a while to find a nice balance.

--College parties aren't all they are made out to be in the movies
In fact they generally aren't much fun at all. I never had enough alcohol in my blood to fully enjoy them like some people seemed to be doing. Turns out going to a party sober just means you won't be able to forget the regrettable fashion choices some people are making. This was a big thing for me freshman year-- I felt like I should be going to parties and loving them. Instead, I learned to accept that while dorm/house/off campus parties might be fun for some people, it's perfectly acceptable to skip them and bake cookies with friends instead.

The best part of any party is generally getting ready with friends :)

--There is no one-size fits all plan for how to make the most out of your freshman year. 
One of my pet peeves are those articles that tell you how to be 'pretty/more intelligent/more successful'. There are articles that tell you, if you just follow these steps, you will have a great freshman year. The problem with these articles is that they impose these qualifications on your life. In order to make friends, do X, in order to be happy you should be doing Y. These blanket proclamations don't take into account individuality and differing personalities. There were things I did freshman year-- that awkward Twister ice break, various parties-- that I did solely because I felt like they were things I should be doing. I didn't enjoy them, I felt awkward, and I didn't get anything out of the experience. The perhaps most important lesson I've learned is to not follow anyone else's guidelines on how to enjoy your life. Just because person A wrote an article about how glad they were that they went to ever party//spoke to every stranger they saw at college doesn't mean that you should feel obligated to follow their lead.

Ice skating with some new friends :)

There you have it! Ten lessons I learned my freshman year. Right now I'm recuperating from getting my wisdom teeth out ((so forgive any stupid grammar/spelling mistakes. I blame the drugs)). However, I still have at least two more craft tutorials to write, so stay posted!

Thanks for reading :)

Why I love Hendrix pt 3

And the epic series continues! ;) Hendrix is a small college tucked away in it's own little bubble. Even though I've only been going here for a little over a semester, I'm already in love.

Maybe I love it so much because of the amazing youth group I'm in, and the retreat we did at Branson. I was driving with my friend, and the second we saw this overlook our jaws dropped and we pulled over. Well, to be more exact, first I drove past it, then past the best place to turn around, had to whip into a steep, crumbling side road, throw the car in reverse and zoom out, as there was a hill and I couldn't see if anyone was coming, and the awkwardly cut over to the overlook.

Um, yeah. My questionable driving skills aside, the overlook was amazing-- it was one of those things that was so beautiful in person, yet so hard to catch on film.

Or maybe it's because of the crazy, late night Chinese runs my roomie and I have. Turns out, no Chinese restaurant is open at 9 o'clock Sunday night. Figures. Good thing Wal-mart is always open. :D

Or maybe it's because I was able to play in the orchestra here, where I got to lug this monster around. The piece called for two different clarinets, one in the key of B-flat, and one in the key of A. Yeah. I'm a music geek.

Or maybe it's the impulse late-night Walmart run my roomie and I have which result in Oreo ice cream and a dozen doughnuts...and then maybe some popcorn we popped in the room........yeah that was a fun night ;)

Or maybe it was how we decked out our dorm room for Christmas...

Or the little snow we got? Me and a couple friends ran out, squealing, looking for the shady patches where the snow had lasted.

Or is the thank-goodness-finals-are-actually-over poker night my youth group had?

Or maybe it's this amazingly trippy tunnel we have to go under a major road. Jackie and I stopped there once after a workout just to take a picture of its gorgeous color. It's lined with lights that change colors-- and there are things you wave your hand over, and it plays a pitch. There's a riddle-- one night this really drunk guy was stumbling about in the tunnel, and showed us what the solution to the riddle was, and made the whole tunnel flash and play this tune.

Or maybe it's the picture that inspired the whole thing? After I snapped a shot of this gorgeous sunset I thought about quickly posting it, just a glimpse of how beautiful Hendrix is and much I love being here. As you can see, it grew from one little picture and a caption to...this three part mini series. I'm lucky to love my home-away-from-home this much. There are so many reasons why I'm lucky; that could make up it's own mini series. ;) But for now, I'll just stick to why I love my hippie school. :)

Why I Love Hendrix pt 2

So I was totally planning on posting this yesterday but it was Friday, and Friday's are always busy. It's sad how much it hurts to write this-- like actually hurts. Quidditch practice killed my finger tips.

Umm...anyway! Continuing the love fest of Hendrix...

Maybe Hendrix is so awesome because of 1)awesome friends 2)who do awesome things like go ice skating. ;)

Or maybe it's because of the awesome church family I've made, who held a party at a pumpkin patch where this cute guy was ;)

Or maybe it's the fact that I joined the Quidditch team and then went to NYC to play in the amazing World Cup. :D

We flew to New York City for the weekend. We were up around six every morning and didn't get to bed till around midnight every night. It was an exhausting, but fun.

Also, it was sub-zero temperatures. That part might have been just a little miserable. ;)

Maybe I love Hendrix so much because of 1)the amazing friends 2)the way they talked me into dying my hair red on a whim

Or maybe it's because the opportunities I've had here, like to be apart of a chamber group. Two clarinets and a bassoon ;)

Or maybe it's because the only legit snowfall I've seen this winter was at Hendrix. The flakes were huge, softly falling to the ground. It wasn't anything more than a dusting, but it was still beautiful to watch.

Or maybe it's the amazing cafeteria/cafeteria staff, who decked out the dinning hall for Christmas.

So I really should do the physics homework I keep procrastinating about...or just keep watching Friends...

Decisions, decisions.....;)

Stay tuned for part 3!

Why I Love Hendrix pt 1

I used to do this facebook status, reasons why I love Hendrix. There were some pretty epic ones, like reason #17 I just saw the milky way for the first time, and reason #1 Veasey won shirttails. I haven't written one in a while, but this post is sort of like that on steroids. I can't rank these, they are all equally amazing.

Maybe I love Hendrix so much because the epically amazing orientation trip where we went to a dude ranch?

I mean look at that face. How could you not fall in love?

Maybe it's the amazing friends I have made here?

Seriously. This was Dr. Who night. It was a scary episode ;)

Or maybe it's this wicked arm tattoo I did back in the fall. (temp! promise;)
((and okay, maybe this isn't entirely relevant, but hey, check out that tat))

Perhaps it's because we have Sundaes every Thursday??

Or maybe it's this amazing little coffee shop we have, just down the street. Perfect for spending a lazy night with friends.

Or could it be because sitting out under a tree and reading a book is a perfectly common sight? ((Les Mis if anyone is curious;))

I realized that there was no way that I could cram everything I love about Hendrix into one post so! Stay tuned for pt 2...and maybe pt 3...and maybe more depending on how many pictures I have ;)