Every Eight Months

Sitting in a Starbucks, one too many bags heaped around my feet as I wait to be picked up, I'm heaving out to a reenactment in DC, something I have been looking forward to four months. Sitting here, sipping on vanilla soy latte, a laptop on my knees I feel content, and its almost as if the last few weeks, months really never occurred. 

At Fort Boreman, West Virgnia

At 11 am yesterday I finished up my last exam, intro to journalism, haven't gotten grades back, but I suspect I did well. The rest of my finals were fairly simple, I got my studying done, cramming weeks of information onto little flashcards and then to my brain. Threw together final projects around midnight and got them sent in, sprinted across campus to deliver final essays. I'm not saying theres nothing to exams week... but certainty wasn't as scary as I was led to believe. 

Finals week aside I spent my last few weeks finally living the college dream I wanted. When asked why I wanted to go to college (its hard to digest for those who can't understand why I would pay $40,000 a year for school) I had two answers. The first was because I want to be a good journalist and I needed the training and connections. The second was the experience, I wanted the dorm life, to meet people, when people talk about college they don't talk about sitting through two hour lectures trying to stay awake, they talk about hanging out late at night, doing things just on the edge of crazy, because you are 20, and away from home, and you can. 

Taken by Heather Willard

While I didn't ever get into the party scene at college (thankfully so) I was blessed by finals week by having an amazing group of people. People I went and got pizza with at two am. People that didn't question, but actually suggested we build a massive blanket fort. People who when our second to last final was complete spontaneously drove to West Virginia, simply on a whim and went to a historical park with me. Seriously, what more could a girl ask for? The last few weeks of school are a mess of picnics, laying in the sun, nighttime food runs, movies, and sleepovers complete with henna and nail painting. 

This is not to say school didn't end on a good note, I just checked my grades and got As across the board (somehow!), a very sweet email from my history teacher complimenting a group project, and high scores on all my exams. I drove home from college yesterday a little teary about leaving my newfound friends, but also swelling with pride that I was able to conquer this thing called college. 

One night sitting with my three closest companions we discussed what we had been doing 8 months ago, and what we planned to do doing. It was both contemplative and full of giggles but really amazing "eight months ago I could have never imagined myself here, and I'm so happy I am" I said. Not that I didn't have an excellent existence, simply that I just didn't see myself fully as the college girl. I have now sampled that piece of life, and am very excited, after what I hope to be an excellent summer, to go back in the fall! 

College isn't Easy, but it's Possible

"College is easy. It's like riding a bike. Except the bike is on fire and you're on fire and everything is on fire and you're in hell." ~Anonymous

And I couldn't agree more. Although I am probably biased as it is the week before finals weeks, and its feels like all the common sense and logic in the world has been tossed into the air like fairy dust, but instead of making one fly you just cough like the air is filled with toxic dust.

Yes I'm being a little pessimistic, deepest apologies. To be honest life is far better then I could expect it today at this time of my life, compared to those horror stories I have heard from my friends. No, I cannot remember the last time I got a full night's sleep, or could take an entire day off to just relax, but some of my lack of sleep has been due to evening spent with friends watching movies, talking, dancing in the warm spring rain...

The last few weeks have been filled with wonderful moments and memories: climbing the large magnolia tree in the courtyard to sit among the heavily perfumed blossoms, extreme photoshoots with my ballerina friend, hilarious swing dance classes then ended collapsed on the floor in giggles, all night henna parties and waking up the next morning to lovely golden red designs winding around hands, feet, and legs. There are many more, I have a scattering of friends across campus, and have reached that happy point where I cannot walk anywhere without running into a general acquaintance. Best of all I have my little group of friends who are sitting in my room waiting when I come home from class, or wake me up in the morning ready for breakfast. Join me for nightly adventures exploring campus in the moonlight or the rain. People you can collapse onto with laughter, and cry on in tears. This is a gift so very dear to me, and something I am eternally grateful for a little posse before the end of my first semester.

From a recent photoshoot, connecting dance and nature.

I am surviving the classes, slogging through the massive array of projects and test that encompass these final weeks. Had a moment of fear and doubt when I failed a placement test on the first try for a required course I needed to get into, I quite nearly fell apart that this was the end. I was simply going to fail college, but it rained that night. Sending the smell of cherry, pear, and magnolia blossoms into the air, a warm rain fell gently onto the steaming bricks of the courtyard, and I went out and danced. Sometimes its the only reasonable thing to do! My friends joined me, and holding hands we spun in circles, faces upturned toward the heavens, laughing in pure glee. A moment of madness turned to joy. I feel like this is the essence of college, there is rarely a constant, it is a time in your life in which you can walk into town barefoot without turning a glance, or dance in the rain, clothes and hair soaked with water, and no occasional onlooker thinks of the peculiarity of it. You can fail something, collect yourself and try again, as I did with that ridiculous placement test, achieving a high B just two days later.

The actual finals haven't hit me yet, who knows the state I will be in by the time those are over, but well equipped with supplies from my dear long distance friends (tea, frosting, and cheese being the essence of this), I now in the end I shall conquer this conclusion of my first college semester.