Everyone said that college would be the fastest four (five or six) years of our lives and that freshman year would go by the quickest.
Though I anticipated it, I never thought I would have reached this point as rapidly as I did.
For freshman, our first year of college is just about to end and summer and the next chapter of our college careers are just about to begin.
So much has changed and so much has happened within these past nine months at Cal Poly. We transitioned from a comforting life at home with good food, our own bed and our families, to an upside-down change in coming to college where campus dining is the best food we get on campus, our beds squeak with every toss and turn and our families are miles away.
The shift in lifestyle came easier for some than it did others but in the end, we all found the routine of college to be more of a comfort than an unfamiliar place filled with unfamiliar people.
Now, we all unconsciously call Cal Poly and San Luis Obispo our home (and what better place to call our home than the “Happiest City in America”), making our parents a little bit sad when we say it to them. But when it comes down to it, I am happy I can call this place my home — or second home.
Coming into freshman year, I had no intention of calling Cal Poly my home because it was far from where I wanted to be. But meeting the people and getting to do things I wanted to do this year made the biggest difference in what made me actually consider this place a home.
Freshman year is supposed to be scary, crazy and fun all at the same time. You meet so many new people, and from those people, you find those certain ones who help make your year that much better.
Freshman year isn’t about all those crazy antics and late nights, but the people you spend time doing those crazy things with. Those people are the ones who will shape your freshman year and will make you feel like you’re almost at home.
That is really the only reason why I have a little bit of sadness in me towards ending the year so quickly and leaving San Luis Obispo. Otherwise, I am more than happy to end this year and move on to begin a new one, knowing more than I did coming into this year.
However, I already know leaving the dorms will be bittersweet (maybe more sweet than bitter). It’s the small things that will be missed; no longer being able to just step outside your door and say “Hi” or talk to someone who is just 15 feet away will be a little weird next year with everyone living in different places. We might not be able to conveniently run across the hall to a friend just to talk or if you need something next year, but that doesn’t mean those friends are unreachable.
As bittersweet as this ending may be, it’s the start of a new beginning — one where we are no longer at the bottom of the hierarchy and will no longer be wandering around campus confused as to where we are even going (let’s hope so, anyways).
Leaving the dorms and starting over at a new place to live next year with people that you approved of enough to live with can only mean a better second year. Plus, with some experience under our belt, we’ll know how to navigate college — and life — a little bit better.
I may want this year to end, but that doesn’t mean freshman year has been nothing short of wonderful. It will definitely be one of those years to remember.
That’s it freshmen; this is the last time you will ever be called that. It’s been great.
Here’s to an amazing summer and an even better three more years of college.