Well friends, it has now been 10 days since graduation. Summer is officially here, and since this will be my second summer not on Lake Erie, it feels more like a work-fest with a little fun in between and absolutely no school work. Yet this summer is quite different for me because the past four were spent not only enjoying a break from class, but knowing that in September I would return to my fabulous life as a student at The Ohio State University. This summer, I face the reality that I am no longer an OSU student, I am an alumnus, and in a couple months I will go on to the next two years of my life as a graduate student at Kent State. Though northeastern Ohio is one of the last places I thought I would end up after getting a bachelor's degree, it was the only place that had an opportunity for me that everyone said I would be stupid to pass up. One of my friends said that it would be good for me because I wasn't ready to be done with school anyway. She's exactly right.
My last four years have hands down been the happiest time of my life. I had a childhood that was quite strange and abnormal so coming to Ohio State was my escape from the hardships and a gateway to what would become my ultimate happiness and strangely positive attitude. I experienced so much at OSU and every year was unique. Freshman year is what I will call "My learning year". This was the year I learned that it was okay to be myself and the people who truly care will be there for me no matter what. It was the year I made the majority of what will become my lifelong friends. And it was the year I learned what a broken heart feels like, in more ways than one. Not too mention, I became quite good at a variety of drinking games, and how to get courtesy rides from student safety services, a skill I would definitely use in the future.
Sophomore year is what I would call "the in between year". One could compare the sophomore year of college to the middle child in any family. Not really as respected as the oldest sibling but often overlooked because of the youngest. In this year, one is no longer a freshman so all the strict guidance by first year experience is gone, and freshman forgiveness does not carry over after 45 credit hours are completed. In the social aspect, because most sophomores aren't 21, yet have their own house/apartment, they resort to taking turns hosting massive house parties with ironic liability signs that read "Must be 21 to drink". These parties usually end up as some of the most epic nights for the respective hosts, as was the case with the parties thrown at my apartment. We had three of them and each one was full of strange sequences of events that none of us will forget. In addition, my sophomore year was the year that the blizzard of 08 took place, and my best friend and I decided to see how it feels to be in 20 degree weather wearing a swim suit. The biggest upside of this year though is that since it was stuck in the middle, we had already learned a year's worth of lessons about how we needed to act in college but did not need to really find out our purpose in the world for another year or so.
This brings me to junior year, which would probably be my best year of college. I had finally figured out that I wanted to do, which was, and still is, sports journalism, instead of my previous two ideas of investigative and political reporting. I loved having my criminology minor but my opinions are too strong about certain issues to remain unbiased in my reporting. I have my favorite teams, yes, but if I'm not writing an opinion column I think I do a pretty good job of not letting people know who my favorite team is. This was also the only year of college where all of my roommates got along, which is hard to believe since the house consisted of 7 girls. I love having roommates and this is the year that solidified why. But probably the best part of junior year was the long-awaited 21st birthday celebration. To top it off, mine was in Panama City (see my post "Back on the Boat" for details).
Finally, there was senior year, "the year I need to figure it out". I never actually did figure it all out, but at least I have a plan for after graduation. I did quite a few internships to make some great connections and get something other than countless serving jobs on my resume. I also managed to win a peer-pressure induced jello wrestling contest, which really was more like stick three girls in a pool of jello and see who could collect the most beads. I think the other two really wanted to fight each other. I just wanted to collect the beads and win the 50 bucks. Clearly my strategy was best, and less skanky.
Now that this is over, I feel a huge cloud of uncertainty over me. Yes, I'm going to grad school, but that wasn't in the plan until recently. Throughout my entire life my educational career was completely planned out and I knew exactly what I would be doing the following year. When I graduated from high school, I was so excited and ready to move on and away from my hometown. Ten days ago, I was sad and terrified to leave Columbus and ten days later, I still am.
As depressing as all this may be, I could also put a positive spin on the last week and a half. We could call this timeline of post graduation days 10 days of P90X because I jumped into the latest workout craze the day after I became an alumnus. I still have 80 days to go, but I already can feel my body changing into the healthiest state it's ever been in. I'm not the most unhealthy person; if it wasn't for the drinking and the drunk food and the dorm food from freshman year I probably would still be my high school weight. But I can honestly say that I never have really enjoyed a workout regimen and thought about sticking with it for so long until this.
In addition, in the last 10 days, well, actually, the last 14 days, many Americans have all of a sudden began to care about soccer (known as futbol in every other country). I've never minded watching the sport and I have a real respect for those that have the endurance to run up and down a field for as long as soccer players do. But, I have never been a die-hard fan and I'm not going to pretend I have. I understand the penalties and the positions, but I still can't quite understand the tie bracket and how they determine who moves on to future rounds if teams have so many draws. I often wonder how if there weren't ties in futbol maybe even more Americans would care about the sport and it would be as revered as "the big three" (football, basketball, and baseball). America is a nation prided on competition and there must be a true winner in life, ties are not an option.
We could also call this the 10 days where I still continue the shenanigans that I get myself into, as if I was still an undergraduate. Four years later, I managed to somehow still have the skills to pick up a courtesy ride from the otherwise appointment-only student safety services. And it's never a dull moment when I make an ass of myself in front of a political figure. Monday night I waited on a US senator from Maryland. I'm not going to say what his name was but he was clearly enjoying some down time and was supposed to be meeting up with Sen. Sherrod Brown (never showed) of Ohio. Why they chose Quaker Steak is beyond me and this guy was probably the most prominent figure to ever walk into The Lube (besides Terrell Pryor). The humiliation occured when I thought that Sherrod Brown was an Ohio senator when in fact he is the U.S. Senator representing Ohio. So much for being college educated, but at least I reconfirmed to myself why I switched to sports journalism. The only mistake I've made (so far) is accidentally tweeting something about USA/England when I was actually referring to USA/Slovenia. Oops.
So I guess since I walked through the Shoe with my diploma, it has started to sink in that graduation is not the end of my book and that I'm still the same person, it's just the end of what was so far the best chapter in the story of my life.
