My failed trip to the beach

This week I got invited to go to the beach, immediately I said yes. I could instantly feel the sand on my feet, smell the ocean breeze and feel the heat from the sun. I started mentally packing my bag; shorts, flip flops and sunglasses. I was so excited until I realized that I am in the middle of Virginia in fall. It’s cold and the nearest beach is five hours away. My bag would have to be adjusted, I would need to include long sleeves and pants, definitely not beach attire. I still wanted to go to the beach. I haven’t been since August where at home it was a twenty minute drive and I didn’t go as much as I wish I went now.

  I still was determined to get my feet in the sand. I called my mom and told her about my plans, when I would leave and when I would be getting home. I was going to the beach! It was going to be different from the Florida beaches but a beach nonetheless. I went through the next day still thinking about the beach while wearing my layers of clothes and boots, it definitely felt weird. Later that day I was talking to my sisters and somehow it got brought up that I was going to the beach this weekend. The first thing they both said was “Virginia has a beach!?” I thought about that because I would never guess from all the mountains around campus that in this same state there is a coastline.

As the week progressed I kept thinking about the long drive to the beach, the long drive back to school and the fact that it would be cold. I started thinking that I would have to wait until December when I go home to see the beach. There I can actually swim in the water even though it’s December. I decided against the beach, mainly because of the drive. Today I regret that because I could have been with my feet in the sand looking at the waves.

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change

 Lately I’ve noticed something about college, it’s different. Everything’s different. Classes are different, my sleep schedule is different, the scenery is different (its fall and the leaves are actually changing colors), the people are different and I’m different. It’s only been a couple of weeks but I have changed. It’s nothing too dramatic, I’m still quite but I can feel myself becoming more independent. I have to be, I am 860 miles from home and I don’t have my mom to do things for me anymore. While I am still myself I am changing and growing, like everyone says you do in college.

  It surprised me that I feel so grown up in such a short time. It must be something about living on my own, with a roommate, away from home and having to deal with the stresses and drama of life and college by myself. I don’t have my mom to comfort me like she used to. We would curl up on her bed and watch dumb T.V. shows until I forgot about what I was so stressed out about. I miss that, but I’ve found my own ways to deal with stress and everything else. College is about adapting to whatever is thrown at you. Like the loud girls in the hall at all hours of the day and night or forgetting to print a paper at 2am. I like being independent and I like being away at college. It is strange to me that just being here for such a short time has changed me, I'll be here for four years I guess I'll have to see what I'm like then.

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The mailbox incident

  I have always loved getting mail, including junk mail, any mail is great. I love opening the letters and packages addressed to me or not, at home I would open anything. For some reason the feeling of tearing open that letter that says "To Miss Kelsie Kreuzburg" and revealing the mystery of what is inside the slim envelope is exciting. At home to receive my mail it was simple, open my front door, walk down the driveway, open my mailbox and get the mail. Here at RU it’s a little more complicated, especially for me. You would think that a nineteen year old would be able to open a mailbox with a combination, however I cannot. More than once I have walked out of the mailroom empty handed knowing there is mail in my box, but I cannot open it. One day, after struggling with my combination for a while, I asked the girl behind the counter if she could help me with it because I was obviously doing something wrong. She sent someone out and I read the three numbers to him. It didn’t work. Again I read the numbers and he still couldn’t open the box.

“Are you sure those are your numbers?”

“Yeah I have the combination on my phone.”

“Okay. I’ll try again, it’s this box right?”

I thought to myself obviously, I’m not dumb, but I double checked just to make sure. It wasn’t the box, it was the one below it. I could feel my face getting red, after one try my box popped open and I received my mail, finally. I grabbed it and ran out. Since then getting my mail has improved but only slightly. I can now open my box but after five or six times, it is sad. I don’t feel too bad because I see some people struggling with opening the boxes but still I wish that I could open mine. Maybe by second semester I will be able to.

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Parents

I knew at one point homesickness would hit me. It felt weird to me that it has taken this long, maybe because I am still in shock or maybe because I am running around and doing so much work that I haven’t had the time to think about it. Either way the timing was just right. I miss my family, my friends, my dogs, all far away back at home in west palm where I left them a month ago. It’s strange to me being far from everything I have grown up with. I have never been away from my parents for a long time. I never went to sleep away camp. Even being away from my two sisters is starting to make me sad. I kind of miss them, maybe not the fighting, but its weird being away from them. Leaving my dogs was one thing I knew would be tough. Not seeing the three faces I have grown to absolutely adore when I open the door to my dorm is odd. The constant barking at inanimate objects is something that I don’t miss but that has been replaced by music and talking from girls on my dorm floor.

  Having to transition into a whole new environment is something strange and somewhat exciting. What is even more exciting is when you get you see your parents after a month without them. Last weekend was parent’s weekend. I had been looking forward to it since my parents dropped me off. I didn’t even have to question if they were going to make the thirteen hour drive from Lake Worth, Florida to Salem, Virginia, I knew that they have missed me as much as I have missed them. When I pulled into the parking lot of the hotel my parents were staying at and saw their faces as they ran to me, it felt as if I no time had passed since I had seen them last.

  We talked about the weather, what my sister were up to, how my dogs were and of course how school is. Seeing them made my homesickness disappear momentarily but now, a week after parent’s weekend, I miss them more than before. I am not going home for fall break, thirteen hours is too far of a drive for a week. The next time I see them will be winter break but I know that it will be great and it gives me something to look forward to. College is such a big change from high school and doing it without your parent’s takes getting used to but I think I have been doing okay.

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The test

  Studying in college is so much different than in high school. Today I had a biology test. I thought I was prepared for it. I studied and reread the chapters, looked over the powerpoints and did the crosswords my teacher had provided us. I knew I was cramming this in but I had so much other homework over the course of the week and weekend and thought I knew all I needed to know about photosynthesis and respiration. So after about four straight hours of studying I decided my brain was done and had every bit of knowledge I could cram into it.

  In high school I could study for a test for an hour at night and about ten minutes the class before and pull off an A or B. I was good at last minute studying because I paid attention in class. I have learned that this doesn’t work in college but unfortunately I put myself in this situation. In the morning I woke up so nervous and went to my 8:30 class. I focused on the lecture but in the back of my mind I was freaking out about my upcoming test. The thoughts of “I am going to fail this” and “I should have studied more” were flying through my brain. After my class it was off to Biology, as I walked and studied I was dreading taking this test. I sat down at my seat and still studied more trying to memorize as much as I could. Once the professor said it was time for the test a sudden calm came over me as I realized I could do nothing about my situation now but try my hardest.

   On the first page I knew all the answers, and the next, and the next, and the next page. It was the last page the stumped me but as I chose the best answers and wrote them down I felt good about my test. I might have freaked myself out over nothing, I won’t know until next week. In the future I need to develop better study habits, future as in this week, but I walked out of the class feeling good about my photosynthesis and respiration test.

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Florida weather is always better

  I knew that when I left my home to move to college I would be leaving my comfort zone. I would also be leaving my family, my friends and everything that I had grown used to in Florida. Particularly the weather. In Florida we have three seasons hot, hotter and not as hot. Our “winter” falls into the season not as hot. Sure on some days it gets pretty chilly and people walk around wearing their scarves, beanie’s, boots and jackets but by noon it’s hot again and the layers come off for fear of mild heat stroke, even in December and January.

  This week at RU has been a completely new adjustment for me. I knew exactly what I was getting myself into moving to the mountains of Virginia, I just didn’t expect it to be cold in September! By cold I mean 60s. I know by most people’s standards in the North °60F is not cold, but in Florida that is our winter and that is normally the coldest it gets. I walked out on Tuesday morning wearing shorts and flip flops ready for the day, to my surprise the air was crisp and chilly, I hadn’t checked the weather forecast because it is still September and I was not expecting the weather to be cold. Luckily I had grabbed a jacket last minute. I had no time to change because I never wake up on time in the morning, so I walked to class quickly the whole time shivering and hating myself for leaving the beautiful tropical climate of Florida. It only takes me about three minutes to walk to class but it felt like twenty. I wanted class to take as long as possible because I didn't want to go back outside into the cold unprepared. So when class ended I braced myself by the door and made a beeline for my dorm. As soon as  I got back into my dorm room I put on the warmest clothes I owned, made a steaming hot cup of tea and curled up under a cozy blanket until I had to leave for my next class.

  The rest of the week I tried to dress for the weather but I realized my wardrobe still consists mostly of “Floridian” clothes. I have a few sweaters, long pants and long sleeve shirts but I will have to make major wardrobe update to keep from freezing, my thin cotton shirts won’t do. If this is only the beginning of Fall I am going to freeze in the winter.

 

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Water

  This Monday night my roommate and I went to Walmart for a couple of things we needed, like water and school supplies. My car was parked at a perfect parking spot in location to my dorm. I knew the second I moved it my spot would be lost but I could no longer drink from the water fountains. Inside Walmart I made the decision to get a 35 pack of fully sized water bottles. After checking out we got into my car and headed back to campus. It was around 9:30 and at this time of night we were both sleep deprived and barley awake from the long day, I probably shouldn’t have been driving but we got there and back safely.

  On our way back to the school there was, of course, no parking in the parking lot closest to our dorm. So we headed to the next closest one. That lot was also full. In a second of panic I looked at C and said “I have no clue where any other parking lots are” so I drove around a little until she pulled up a map.   When we eventually found a spot, after getting lost once, it had been thirty minutes later and we were on the opposite side of campus. This wouldn’t have been a big deal if we hadn’t bought a 35 pack of water. I was going to leave it in the trunk and only take a few bottles to the room when my roommate offered to carry it back to the dorm. We took the bags we had bought and our backpacks along with the case of water out of the trunk. As we headed out of the parking lot we looked how far we had to walk and let out a big sigh. We had to walk down a huge hill, climb three sets of stairs and stop to get some food from the cavern.  The whole time stopping every couple of minutes to readjust the water bottles that were falling out of the case or the bags that were starting to make red marks on my arms. The whole time the few people that passed us stared at us like we had two heads. My roommate carrying a case of water and me with Walmart bags on my arm, I would say pretty normal, although we both were sighing and complaining basically the whole way to our dorm.

   When we finally reached our dorm, on the third floor, we were exhausted and threw the bags and water on the floor as fast as we could. There were a few girls in the common room who looked shocked at us coming down the hallway, I started laughing at the situation because I was imagining myself and C running through campus with a huge case of water and Walmart bags, it was a pretty funny sight. When we got into the room I soon realized that I could have just pulled my car up to the dorm building and dropped off the water, it would have made the situation easier but the story and the adventure were fun.  I guess the lesson is to not go to Walmart when you are tired and also to not buy the biggest case of water.

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