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Sometimes, you get burned.

Hello everyone! The past week went by sooo fast. Because everyone has been at school for a few weeks, all the clubs and organizations are starting to get established. Which means we all become 3x busier…

Sometime a couple weeks ago, the school held an activities fair where students could walk around and talk to all the different clubs. Typical freshman, I signed up for 8 (ish) clubs and there is no possible way I will go to any of their meetings. Last week, all the clubs sent out their emails for their first meetings. I noticed that at least three of the clubs all met this week, on the same day. I wrote them all down in my planner, organized student that I am, and didn’t think anything of it. Until yesterday. Yesterday, I put this week’s athletic schedule in (games, practices, individual sessions, etc.) It just so happens that we have a home volleyball game the day of all of those meetings.

Coincidentally, all of the meetings occur right before or right after my game, but they are just close enough in times that the chances of me making any of them are slim to none. Leaning more on the none. Moral of this story, don’t sign up for 8 (ish) clubs.

On a completely differnt note, my search for a “college church” continues. It’s hard to not judge every little detail of a new church, comparing it with what I’m used to. Some of the things I’m judging don’t make it wrong, just different. I’ve been to two different churches since being here and still don’t feel quite like I’m home there. Of course, it’s hard to tell in just one service what a church is like so I’m trying to just focus on the main aspects of what I’m searching for. Back home, I go to a large church with an amazing praise band that I now realize I took for granted. You can’t find a praise band like that just anywhere. My pastor tells funny stories, not all pastors do. (It certainly makes the sermon more interesting, though!) At my church, the offering plate goes all the way down every aisle. In others, they have some sort of weird pattern that I can’t figure out. Basically just a bunch of small details that make my church search more refined because of what I’m used to and what I like.

Speaking of church, Sunday morning was an interesting morning for me. I woke up an hour earlier than I intended (no clue why or how) and I wasn’t tired. I decided to take advantage of this extra time to curl my hair. I haven’t really had time while at college to set aside for myself for doing my hair,

This is what the burn looked like Sunday evening.

painting my nails, etc. As I was curling my hair on Sunday morning, I began to feel a burn on my wrist. I had set my wrist down on the curling iron….go me. I think I had it sitting there for a while because it is quite the burn.

I’ve been keeping neosporin and a band-aid on it to prevent infection. Yesterday at practice, I passed a ball and felt a little pain from my wrist. Instantly, I had the thought that the blister had popped. This thought was soon confirmed by the feeling of liquid gushing out. As my dad said, “that’s gonna leave a mark.”

College has taught me many lessons while I’ve been here. Sometimes, when you sign up for too many things, you’ll get burned and won’t be able to keep your committments. Or, you get burned out on doing something you used to love doing. You might have to burn bridges connecting you to other people, but it might be for the best. Othertimes, you’ll literally get burned. By a hot object. Who knew growing up could be so painful?

I Came Home!

Happy Monday and happy Labor Day! I got to come home to spend the weekend so I’m definitely happy about this holiday!

When I came home, there were a few things I noticed right away that I missed:

The Shower-At college, water pressure sucks. Plain and simple. It takes me 30+ minutes to wash my hair at college (not kidding)! It feels like I barely turned the sink faucet on, and then spread it out through a shower head. My first shower at home, I think it took about 10 minutes or less to wash my hair. Oh, the power of water pressure.

The Bed- This observation was not neccessarily a bad one, but different all the same. In a college dorm, we sleep on twin XL mattresses. Although if I’m honest, I don’t have much faith in the XL part-my feet still touch the end railing. BUT, I do have a wonderful cooling gel memory foam mattress topper that goes on my mattress at college. I’ve gotten used to rolling into the wall, almost falling off the other side, and having my comforter fall off because the wall won’t let it stay on my bed…My first night back at home, I layed down in my bed and, low and behold, I could roll both directions. I could stretch my legs out and not feel the end of the mattress. And, if I feel like sleeping diagonal that is no problem at all. It might be tough to go back to my dorm bed.

Chocolate Chip Pancakes-I love to cook. And while my dorm does have two kitchens that we can use, I just can’t justify going out and getting all the ingredients I need to cook something. Especially since I have a meal plan, so it’s not like I’m being deprived of anything. I didn’t realize how much I missed cooking until I woke up on Saturday morning with the urge to make chocolate chip pancakes-so I did. And they were delicious. Having the ability to make food whenever I want is something I didn’t realize I would miss so much.

My Family, of course-In a family like mine, it would be hard to not notice a difference at college. At college, my brother isn’t ripping hair out of my skull (“but I thought it was a loose one!”) or yelling “HEY!” really loud at me. My little sister isn’t asking to borrow my clothes (she IS borrowing them anyway, though) and my other sister isn’t having nightly dance parties in the hallway with me. My dogs don’t get to go on car rides with me, or leave a cup of slime on my leg after licking me, or ask to be scratched for 20 minutes. I didn’t realize that I actually missed all of it until I was gone. And now that I’m back, I’m not quite sure I miss all of it…. but I do miss a lot of it. And you can bet I’m already looking forward to the next weekend I get to spend home.

My friends-Hanging out, getting icecream, making frozen pizza, etc. I knew I missed them,

We worked on converting Kels into a Husker fan this weekend…and then the game got cancelled 🙁

but I didn’t know how much until I got to hang out with them again! They can make me laugh like no one else can and I’m so happy to have them all in my life, even if I don’t get to see them as much now.

College-Oddly enough, when I got home, I realized I missed college. I miss my roomie, I miss the caf (not sure why but I do), and I miss the friends that I’ve made over the past couple weeks. It hasn’t quite been a month, but college is one of the best things to ever happen to me. I’ve learned a lot, I’ve met people I otherwise would never get to. College impacts you in a way that you can’t understand unless you’re experiencing it. It’s crazy to me that I only get to experience four years of this!

When talking with some friends from high school this weekend, I realized I missed one more thing. High school. Now believe me, I never thought those words would ever come out of my mouth. And I don’t think it’s the actual school part that I miss. It’s the friendships and bonds that were formed over 13 years. It’s the feeling of doing the first ‘lasts’ together with people you’ve grown up with. It’s the student sections, the spirit days, the overall family that was my high school. After high school, you really don’t get to experience that ever again. That’s something I hope I never take for granted. Now, I’m just determined to make the most of college!

Week One and Done

Happy to be reporting back here again this week! I’ve started really looking forward to checking in here; it’s a really nice way for me to think back and reflect on my week! Well, as you can probably assume from the title, I made it through the first week of classes!

A summary of my week:

Tuesday- 9:30am Accounting Class

I get to the classroom 15 min early. I’m the first one there. A few minutes later other students begin to trickle in and I just got this feeling. You know how sometimes you can just tell that something is off? Well, I was looking at the kids coming into this classroom and I could just tell they were not here for accounting. I got online and checked my schedule again, and sure enough I was in the right room. At 9:28am a male professor walks into the classroom and I thought to myself, he sure doesn’t look like a Jessica. My accouting professor was a female so I knew something was wrong here. A girl in the back of the room raised her hand and asked what room this was. The male professor told her the room number and I checked my schedule again. I was in the classroom it said I was supposed to be in. Someone behind me asked if we needed notebooks or laptops and the professor said both. I raised my hand and asked what class this was. Introduction to Intermediate Algebra. Yep, wrong class.

Thankfully, the professor was very nice and helped me figure out what room I was in (not even in the same building). When I walked out, another girl got up and followed me so at least I wasn’t the only one. I finally got to accounting at 9:32am and my female professor was very understanding. Class got out before 10:00am (supposed to go to 10:50am). My next class wasn’t until 1:40pm so I went back to my dorm and watched Psych (I’ve been doing that alot so far) after I got online to check if any of my other class locations moved. Turns out 3/5 were in different rooms so good thing I checked! 1:40pm rolls around and I go to class. My first year experience teacher is in there. She has us sign a sheet and then tells us this class is cancelled for the rest of the week. Yay college!

Wednesday-9:00am Intro to Christian Theology

Supposedly, I have the strictest/hardest professor on campus. I would not disagree with that statement. He walks in and immediately asks the class what countries border Argentina. Um, what? That statement sums up how that class went, but we did get out early and that class did get cancelled tomorrow!

10:00 FYE (first year experience)- This class is made up of my housemates (McGilley House from my last post) so we all know each other fairly well. I think I’ll probably enjoy this class. After lunch, I had a business class that I also got out early from. So far, I haven’t sat in a college class for longer than an hour. I have had a lot of homework, though.

Saturday-I drove back home to surprise my mom for her birthday. And I got some good food out of it 🙂 No, I didn’t bring home any laundry. I’ve actually done all of my laundry here and I’m surviving okay. I stayed home for a few hours and then drove back here to let out my teammate’s dogs. I was dogsitting for the dogsitter.

AND THEN….I got a fish. Well, I got two. And a snail. And they aren’t exclusively mine, my boyfriend has partial ownership. ‘Twas a good weekend.

And now onto a bit of a tough subject: volleyball. Now I know that college athletics aren’t supposed to be easy, but I am just in a really negative mindset about it right now. Which, honestly, is normal for the situation I’m in. I’m fourth in line for my position. The girls ahead of me are all older (one is a Junior and two are JUCCO transfers) so for me to jump ahead of them would take a lot right now. And I understand completely. I’m a freshman in college, no college athlete experience, and I came from a small school. When I look at it from that angle, it makes sense why I will be getting little or no court time this year. That doesn’t mean I like it.

I’m going to be honest, I love the game. I absolutely love it. But, it’s hard right now. It’s hard to be motivated to try hard in a practice when I already know I won’t be playing much, if at all. I made a committment though, so I’m going to follow through with it.

So, here’s where I am now. I don’t know what’s going to happen throughout the course of this semester and season but that’s the beauty of things. College is a whole new chapter in my book. I might not like everything that happens but I will love some of it. Let me show you this side of it: I’ve met some of the most amazing people here. People want to get to know me and they want to be friends. My class sizes are just a few people bigger than high school so the professors know my name. And the cafeteria french fries are the best.

So yes, I will have setbacks. Heck, I’m in one now. But there’s always a brighter side and I just have to focus on what I can control. Here’s to a great semester!

The Night Before School…

It is officially the night before classes begin at my university. I’ve only been here a little over a week but it feels like it’s been a month! Call me crazy, I am actually looking forward to classes starting. I love my routine and so far, college has not been kind to any sort of order.

For those of you who are interested how last week went, it went. Pre-season, more commonly known around campus as “hell week,” was very long. I only experienced it from the perspective of an indoor athlete, but I’m sure soccer and football feel similarly about this past week. Pre-season is basically a week full of two (or more) practices a day, weights and conditioning, and team bonding. The week seems to drag out forever while simultaneously flying by. Hence my feeling that I’ve been here for a month. For me, every practice felt like a day.

To be honest, no, I did not enjoy pre-season. In fact, after the first practice I was questioning if I really wanted to stick with it. The first day was awful. I didn’t know anything, felt like my skill level was miniscule in comparison to the other girls, and I was so tired and sore. To state the obvious, I was not prepared for this week. While I didn’t really like pre-season, I realize a lot of people don’t. (Refer to previous mention of the term “hell week.”) And while the first couple days absolutely killed me, the practices got better, I’m starting to learn the terminology, drills, and defenses my coach has in place. I can tell that I’m improving already. Still, at this point I wouldn’t say that I’m having fun. Of course, I love my teammates and we do have fun times, but college volleyball is a whole different ball game than high school (which I expected). I say this having only just finished pre-season and having zero games under my belt. Clearly, I haven’t even experienced half of what is to come, which is why I decided to stick out the season.

On a completely different note, the class of 2022 was officially inducted into the University of Saint Mary this morning at a matricualtion ceremony. Basically, we all got dressed up, went to the chapel, lit a candle, and were prayed over. While we were at the ceremony, it really hit me that the students at my university are extremely cared about and loved by the staff and faculty. Coming from a small town and high school, that is something that is very important to me and I love that I was able to find a college where I still have the feeling of family.

Before the matriculation ceremony, I had to go through freshman orientation. Sunday was the main day, we had something happening from 9am to 9pm. We were broken up into houses (different groups) and we are in that house for the rest of the year. Basically, the houses are our FYE (first year experience) classes and we compete against all the other houses in different competitions throughout the year. I’m in the McGilly house (aka the honors house). We’re the smallest house ( we have 14 people, the other houses have 20+). While we are at a slight disadvantage in the athletic events (tug of war 14 vs 23?) we’re at a huge advantage in the friendship department. I know everyone in my house, can remember all their names, and we have fun when we’re together. We’re even making plans to go have dinner.

What I’ve deduced from this past week is that college is actually pretty awesome. People are nice (for the most part) and are eager to make friends (again, mostly). I’ve met so many different types of people in just one week than I did in my entire high school career. And I love it! My first friends were my teammates, but that circle has been extended so much and I’m thankful that I’ve had the opportunity to meet all these people. Tomorrow will extend that circle even more. A lot of people I’ve talked to say you meet a lot of your friends in class.

I start my college career with a 9:30am Accounting class. What direction my life will take after this week, month, semester, and year, I don’t know. I’ve met some amazing people in one week alone and if this week is any indication of how the next four years will go, I can’t wait!

P.S sorry, I still have no pictures from the scavenger hunt and sadly, we lost.

I Survived the First Weekend

It’s Sunday night and I’m still alive! Of course, classes haven’t started and I haven’t gone through actual orientation but I’m here and semi-moved in. This weekend has been full of new people, but I loved every minute. There’s been lots of changes but so far, so good. Tomorrow begins 3 a days ( two practices plus weights everyday) and the real test on my sanity begins. Before we get there, let’s relive this welcome weekend.

SATURDAY

My parents and I left the house around 7:30 am. I had packed my car up the night before (honestly, I’m surprised everything fit) with the help of my brother and boyfriend. I let my dog sleep with me (something that usually annoys me) and thought about all the things that I would miss about home (only do that if you feel like having a good cry).

But when 7:30 rolled around, I was eager to go get moved in. Once we arrived, things moved relatively quickly. We checked in, followed the blue arrows around the library to different stations (just like high school registration) and finally it was time to move in. I moved my car over to the dorm parking lot and was instantly swarmed with people eager to help. Stressful situation for me actually…

Several girls from my volleyball team (whom I hadn’t met yet) came up to help, along with lots of guys. All my stuff got moved into my room with surprising speed. I had gotten into my room before my roommate arrived, so my parents and I had a little time to get things started before even more stuff got there. We started making my bed and came across our first college move-in mistake. Instead of a duvet comforter, we had bought a mattress pad. So yes, currently I am sleeping under a mattress pad stuffed into a duvet cover. Don’t worry, my mom ordered me the real thing!

After my bed was made, my roommate arrived! Stuff was everywhere ( we had to jump over some boxes to move around). In the middle of all the unpacking, we had some orientation duties to attend to so we left to do that. When all the meetings were finished (one thing I’ve learned so far is college people love meetings) we came back to the room. My parents went on the mandatory Wal-Mart run to get some odds and ends we discovered we needed. Before they headed back home, we went out to dinner at a local restaurant. After my parents left, things slowed down considerably.

My roommate and I finished unpacking (mostly) and talked until our meeting (see?) with our RA. After that meeting, we came back to our room and crashed. So far, I’ve done a lot of sleeping at college.

SUNDAY

I woke up way too early for Sunday. My school doesn’t serve three meals on Sunday, instead serving brunch and dinner. Brunch doesn’t start until 11:30am, however. My routine at home includes breakfast pretty much as soon as I wake up, so this will be an adjustment. After brunch, all the new fall athletes had to undergo concussion baseline testing…not too terribly interesting. Testing was followed by a 3 hour long meeting with the volleyball team, after which we got to go down to the locker room and get lots of new clothes, shoes, etc. to rep the program. We had a few minutes of downtime after the meeting for dinner, but then we had team bonding in the form of a scavenger hunt. The scavenger hunt was so much fun, and I honestly feel like I know the girls on my team better already. We were split into 6 teams for the scavenger hunt and my team got back to the home base first, by the way. Unfortunately, we don’t find out who won until later. I’ll be sure to update y’all with pictures in a later post. BUT my coach treated us all to 1/2 price shakes at Sonic afterwards. A fantastic ending to a great day.

But for now, this is all. I survived welcome weekend! As I said earlier, this week will put me through the true first test of college athletics. I’m excited for what’s to come, this year is gonna be full of new and crazy experiences!

Only One More Week?

One week stands before me and college. One week. For some students, they’ll be moving into an apartment or staying at home. I move in a little bit earlier than most college freshman because I’m playing volleyball. This day has been creeping up on me throughout the summer, sort of like the piles of dorm stuff sitting around my house.

Also piling up is the list of things I still need to get and things I still need to do, like get tape for my tape dispenser and pack my clothes. The problem with such tasks is that I am an overthinker by nature. Anytime we leave for vacation, I get out my binder where I plan out exactly what I am bringing down to how many hair ties to put in my bag. While on the surface this sounds very organized, in situations where I will be gone for longer than a week, it creates pages of chaos. This is one such case.

True, I am only going about 45 minutes away. However, the first month (at least) of my college experience will be filled with weekend volleyball tournaments and, of course, adjusting to the new atmosphere. Because of this, I don’t know when I’ll be able to come home and stay (aka bring all my clothes home so Mom can do laundry and I can switch to winter stuff). As an overthinker, I don’t like not knowing. I need the details. And, I am most likely overthinking how busy I’ll actually be.

Unfortunately, no, the toy horse will not be accompanying me to college.

If the overthinker in you is wondering what I plan to do about this “dilemma,” here’s the answer: I’m going to bring multi-functional clothing that will last me through blazing hot or hoodie weather. Seems pretty obvious, but we overthinkers tend to avoid the obvious until the last possible moment. Throughout the time where I might be able to sneak home to watch my brother’s football games, I can just bring and switch out things that I can’t wear anymore because of the weather. Simple, I know. I would also show you my packing list, but surprisingly, I don’t have it made yet.

My advice to those of you going to college is this: have the major items (bedding, laptop, etc.) already bought when you get to the week-before mark. It will make the whole process so much easier than going to the nearest Wal-Mart on move-in day to get a comforter. The littler things can be accumulated throughout the week, and then semester, as you need them. Most people shop throughout the summer for these things so it’s not a problem at all come move-in time. Prepared=less stress.

One thing that I have been working all summer to prepare is myself. It sounds cliché, but it’s true. I will be going from a full size bed to a twin XL (first world problems). I’ll go from having my own room, to sharing. Due to the lack of space in a dorm, I’ll have to change some of my routines to be more considerate of both my roommate and suitmates. It is going to be quite the adjustment. To be honest, I’m actually looking forward to all of this, though. I’m gonna meet lots of new people, have a new volleyball family, and experience things that I never could by staying at home or not even going to college. Sure, I’m gonna miss what I’ve been surrounded with my entire life. But there comes a time when we all start a new journey, separate from what we know. That’s part of growing up, right?

What is The Grow Up Project?

Hey there! My name is Reagan. I graduated from high school in May and now I’m two weeks away from moving into my dorm for college. I’ve been thinking about all the new stuff I have to buy, the new people I’m gonna meet, the general “newness” of what’s about to happen to me. This afternoon was when it finally hit me. I can’t be the only one feeling a tad (okay, super) overwhelmed about starting this whole college thing. So I decided I would do what I’ve been hoping to do for several years now: start a blog. Hopefully, this blog will help others by sharing my experiences, failures and successes. We all have to grow up, whether we want to or not. Now, not to say that growing up is a bad thing, you can make it awesome!

I am only 18, so clearly I don’t have a lot of “life advice” to give. My hope is that through The Grow Up Project, you’ll get to compare what I’m going through to your own experiences. In a way, we’ll become friends! I’ll be giving you all sorts of advice for the upcoming events in life (the ones I’ve gone through anyway). On top of that, I’ll share some of my tips for living your life the best way you can. This means lots of posts involving things I love that have helped me so far (let’s face it, there will probably be lots of stuff about food). It can be a crazy world out there so we’ve got to stick together, right?

So what are you waiting for? Let’s start growing up!