Going to an out-of-state school was hard enough for me because I am so close to my family. Luckily I picked a great school not to far away from home so my parents could come visit often and I could go home whenever I wanted. This closeness to home would come in handy spring semester of freshman year. To begin with I am very close to my family. I went from seeing my grandparents everyday to seeing them only when I came home on certain breaks that we got from school. A second factor that made it difficult for me to be away from home is my mom's health.
When I was 9 months old she was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. This has effected my entire family tremendously and has made me the strong independent woman I am today. Leaving home I was fearful that my mom would get sick again after she had been doing so well because the stress of work and taking care of the house would be too much for her. I was the one who took care of my mom when she was sick and paralyzed. I was the one who took care of the laundry and cleaning and shopping. My mom doesn't like to ask for help so I was scared that without me to be there to help she would try and do everything on her own. Luckily I have an awesome Nana who knows when my mom just needs a break and can tell when she's getting sick so she is able to come over and help. My grandmother is also my eyes and ears back home. She will be completely open with me and tell me how my mom is doing no matter how hard the news may be to hear. This was extremely comforting to know when I was leaving home because my mom isn't one to go to the doctor when she's getting sick and she also isn't one to tell me whats going on. My mom likes to sugar coat her disease and not worry me. I have never heard her complain about the pain she's in when I know that it is a constant thing every day. She's a fighter!
I was so excited to start college at a great school like the University of South Carolina. I went to USC knowing no one, which is what led me to joining a sorority. Not knowing anyone going to USC forced me to turn to Facebook to find a roommate. I thought I had found someone I would get along great with in Camden girl and that we would have so much in common. Little did I know that I would be left roommate less for spring semester because she would turn out to have far too many problems than she could deal with. I lived in a suite style dorm freshman year. I didn't know either of my suite mates but I ended up becoming best friends with one of them who I'll name Cayce girl. We became inseparable and were in fact practically the same person. I convinced her to pledge my sorority which made us even closer. However we were so comfortable with each other that I kinda closed myself off to other girls in my sorority something I immediately regretted with Cayce girl had to drop and I was left knowing no one. She dropped close to the end of fall semester so it didn't effect me that bad because I wasn't yet eating at the Kappa house. Right before Christmas break my roommate had an incident the night of her semi-formal that ended her up in the hospital. As a result of this and other mental issues she was battling she decided to take spring semester off (something she decided to tell me when I was driving back to school to start spring semester). I though ok this will be fine, I'll just have my own room but I'll still have my suite mates. Well one week into spring semester one of my suite mates decided to get out of her housing contract because she was staying at home more than she was in the dorm. So now it was just me and Cayce girl left. Well a few weeks later Cayce girl got pregnant...
I started out freshman year with three roommates and not even a month into spring semester I was left with none. Cayce girl started staying with her boyfriend and just stopped talking to me. She was expecting me to be happy for her but how could I be when all I had heard from her was how she didn't want to be a teen mom like her mother. She moved out and the last time I talked to her was at her wedding which I only got invited to by default. I was miserable after this. I had really no friends in the sorority who I could hang out with on the weekends so I ended up going home every weekend. When Sunday came around and it was time for me to go back to school I would cry every time I was pulling out of the driveway. Freshman year was rough but I managed to make it through and to do well in school.
After Cayce girl got pregnant it left me with no one to live with sophomore year because she literally found out the night before we were going to look at an apartment that she was pregnant. I was left having to reach out to my sorority in order to find someone to live with. At the time I didn't understand this but the whole situation with my roommates was a blessing because without it I never would have ended up living with Lyndsey and Lindsay. And as a result I never would have met Kathryn, Rachel, and Megan. These are my friends now and I wouldn't change it for anything in the world.
Sophomore year I have more than made up for how miserable I was freshman year! From the first football game of the season to the last baseball game I would not trade any of my experiences freshman year because without them I would never have met all the amazing friends I have in my life.
So I would just like to thank everyone in my life for making Sophomore year by far the best year of my life and I can honestly say that as I watch my baseball team head back to Omaha I am not dreading going back to school but instead I am looking forward to it and can say that August can't get here soon enough.
Thank you:
Lyndsey, Lindsay, Kathryn, Rachel "Scratch", Megan, Lindsay (Biggie), Lauren (Grandbiggie), Sallie (Little), McGhee, Kevin, Zach, Kyle, Natalie, Kitty, Shelley, Kelsey Mac
No comments:
Post a Comment