I came into college expecting something completely different than what it became, but I am so glad that it was not what I expected because it turned out to be so much better!
I came to school figuring that college would be much like high school, i would have a select group of friends that I would hang out with, and we would all be as close as the group of friends that I had in high school. Sure, I quickly made friends with a couple girls down the hall and we started going out together, but what I didn't realize is that I would make many other friends in the classroom and in extracurricular activities who I would also spend a great deal of time with.
I was so nervous for classes. I realized during my first week of school that yes, my professors did care about how I did, but they were not going to hold my hand through the semester like some of my high school teachers did. My professors were not going to approach me and suggest we sit down and discuss how I was to improve my grade, instead... it was up to me to approach them.
However, I tried my best! I spent days trekking to the library, and long nights making color coded study guides for biological organisms that gave me nightmares. I wrote papers that I never thought that I could produce, and I learned all about the jazz music that originated in Africa up to Jimmy Hendrix's rock-fusion. All the late nights, coffee runs, early morning workouts, thousands of notecards, hand cramps, and tears produced a GPA that I am very proud of!!!
The outstanding academics is the main reason why I chose Miami, but there were also other parts of college that I wanted to make sure I altered in, like a campus that felt like home, students who I felt that I would fit in with, enough extracurriculars that I could keep busy, and of course the most important thing... food that will satisfy my picky taste buds.
I was so nervous to leave my high school friends and meet new people. It might sound silly but I thought that they wouldn't like me. I guess I didn't realize that everyone was in the same situation that I was in....
And I have to admit that I have never met so many nice people in my life. In every class I would nervously look for a seat close to someone who I could be friends with. Before I knew it my phone doubled in the amount of numbers that I had, and when asking people for the phone numbers you had to ask for their area code!
I made friends in my business fraternity, CAC, classes, dorm, even in the dining hall!!! When I left for Christmas break I was strangely sad to leave my newly founded friends. And when it was time to return to Miami I couldn't help but get excited to go back and see everybody.
Gorgeous brick building, spacious areas of grassland, TREES... these are all things that are most often not located on college campuses. When touring other schools with my parents I couldn't help but feel depressed by the cold, concrete and clustered campuses. I didn't want to live in a dorm that looked like a prison, and I didn't want to go to school in a huge city. I wanted a college experience that allowed me to immerse myself solely in the campus, the student life and my studies.
Miami is located in the small town of Oxford, Ohio... and while there are not skyscrapers, shopping malls or speed limits over 35 miles an hour there are lots of things that I have come to love during my first semester:
1. Instead of pedistrians looking both ways before they cross the street, cars have to drive 5 miles an hour, staring intently in front of their car, to make sure that they don't hit a student who decided they could dash across the street... if Oxford was located in a big city those student's would be "road kill"
2. Uptown on the weekends caters to the college scene. Restaurants turn into nightclubs where kids can go dance and hang out with their friends and fast-food places serve late night specials (some even deliver!!). You might even catch a few "townies" (residents of Oxford) selling food on the sidewalks.
3. The bell tower... although some kids hate the clanging of the bells at all hours of the morning I personally love them. I suppose I don't mind since I had an 8 am 3 days a week and so I had to be up anyways, but there is something magical about walking down a snow covered sidewalk and hear the bell tower playing "My Favorite Things" from the Sound of Music.
There are many more wonderful parts of Oxford that I have come to love over my first semester of school, but why would I ruin the adventures that you would soon experience?
