Welcome to Life

On Sunday, I moved into my dorm and officially began my life as a college student. It has been a really surreal experience, not just for me, but for my friends from high school who are also at A&M with me: one day, we were talking about college being in the distant future, and now, it is finally here. It's difficult not to still feel like a high school student sometimes, though, but knowing that all the other freshman are in the same boat, coupled with the genuine friendliness of the place, makes the transition into this new stage of life much easier.

On Monday, I woke up at around 8:00 because my feet were freezing (unfortunately there is not a thermostat in my room; don't know who planned that one), and after a breakfast of dry cereal and a cereal bar- as I don't have milk yet since the refrigerator was just plugged in yesterday- I set out with my classmates from high school to pick up our textbooks and explore the surrounding shopping areas near the school and ended up discovering that there is quite a wide range of retail stores and restaurants in otherwise small College Station.

We came back for lunch at the dining center nearest our dorms (we all conveniently live near each other and the main avenue for shopping in College Station) and then split up for an afternoon rest in our rooms. During that time, my excitement was beginning to wane ever so slightly as the shadow of realism set in, and I began to feel quite overwhelmed as I consulted my schedule and wrote all of my known social events for the next month into my weekly planner. While doing that, I received a text from my discussion group leader from Fish Camp as well as my older friend Sam, a junior here, letting me know there was free barbeque and a movie on the quad. However, it was beginning to thunder and rain lightly, so I opted to go with my classmate Trever to a cheap chicken place called Layne's instead, where he was having dinner with his own discussion group.

It turned out to be the wiser decision, I think, because I ended up sitting across from a senior International Studies major who happened to be going to France this semester to study abroad. I had a fascinating conversation with this extremely amicable girl about the major and other similar interests and ended up with yet another contact and friend at the university.

As if the day hadn't been busy enough as it was, at 10:30 that night, my high school friends and I got on a charter bus loaded with other freshmen to go to a promotional at Target, which ended up being chaotic and kind of a waste of time, except for the freebies we received. Basically, the College Station Target was closed to the general public, but packed with college freshman lured in by the opportunity to win stuff in a free raffle and the "discounted" prices. I'm not sure how the managers managed to keep people from just stealing things, but after a short visit, we promptly returned to the buses and back to our dorms.