A wrap on freshman year
As my freshman year comes to what feels like an abrupt end, I have a lot to reflect on and A LOT to be thankful for.
If you would have told me 2 years ago, when I was a naive, scared junior in high school just starting to apply to colleges, that I would be in Oxford, Mississippi today, I would have laughed. It was my dream to go to the University of Georgia, and I knew that if I didn’t go there and follow in not only my mom and dad’s footsteps, but my aunt’s, uncle’s, and cousin’s, that nothing would seem right.
Now, I couldn’t picture myself anywhere else. It feels refreshing to do something different. Unique.
If you knew me in high school, you knew how anxious I was to get out of there. But, I was still sad to leave home. Not only was I going to college, but my family was also transitioning to a new city: from Atlanta to Athens. Where would home really be? That was a question that kept me up at night. I know I was not alone in this feeling because a lot of people’s parents move after they graduate high school, but I was already anxious about big things like missing my friends being right down the road, and little things like whether or not I would have to switch my doctor’s offices and that Playa Bowls, my favorite smoothie bowl spot, wouldn’t be right outside my driveway anymore.
One thing I’ve discovered at Ole Miss, though, is that the friends that I have made here have become like family, and because of that, this place feels like home.
Like a lot of you reading this, I’ll be busy working a summer job when I go home, probably with one thing on my mind: Oxford.
Getting lost in The Grove on game days.
Playing on the Square.
Dancing at Rafters until they turn the lights on.
Chicken on a stick and Cookout trays.
Stuffing my face with The Sipp’s jumbo crab dip and Butterfly Martini’s, Boure’s tomato soup and grilled cheese, South Depot’s queso, Lost Pizza’s chicken spaghetti, and of course — Kappa Kappa Gamma’s turkey and cheese melts, which are my personal favorite.
It’s going to be weird not to be around so many people, and knowing that my friends that were seconds away from me during the school year are now thousands of miles away from me, across the country, is something that makes my head spin. But, as my mom always says, absence makes the heart grow fonder.
So, thank you Ole Miss, for the best first year of college that I could ever ask for, and for friends that I know will last me a lifetime. Although I wish for an encore, the party always has to end. But, Ole Miss never lost a party, so I’ll see ya’ll in The Grove.
