Tag: school

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!