It’s crazy to think that in two weeks I am going to be done with my first quarter in college. I remember people telling me that quarters go by quick, but I didn’t think it would be this fast. It feels like it was yesterday that I was driving down the coast, with a car packed up to the ceiling with clothes, refrigerator, microwave, printer, and my bike among other things. The car was filled with all my stuff, and I was filled with all kinds of mixed feelings. I was happy and excited about the new life that was about to start, but somewhat sad for leaving my family, my house, and friends.

Shortly after moving in to my dorm, all these feelings turned in to one big feeling of enjoyment. All the sadness and insecurity that I was feeling, somehow just despaired altogether. Throughout my first week I was in ecstasy; new people, new place, new everything! There was always a reason for celebration, and that was all we did that first week, celebrate! I was amazed at how easy it was to meet people; everyone was friendly, and wanting to meet me just as much as I wanted to meet them. By the end of that week I had made many friends, and was eager to get to know them better throughout the following weeks.

The end of that first week hit me like a slap in the face, but a good slap. The ones that wake you up, and bring you back to reality. Classes were about to start, and college was no longer like summer camp. To my surprise the beginning of classes brought an even more interesting side of college. I was now exposed to a whole new way of learning. I like to call it the sponge method of learning. All I do is absorb, and absorb the information that is thrown at me, and I absorb it all with much pleasure. I find that lectures aren’t as bad as I thought would they would be. Most of the time I feel that I am learning some pretty interesting things. I am also amazed at the variety of subjects that I learn, and am interested in; it ranges from having the discussions about The Times of Harvey Milk, to spending hours balancing chemical equations, and finding limiting reactants. And I am fascinated by all of it, and really glad I’m having this opportunity to learn all this cool stuff, from some really awesome professors.

I guess the only down side of liking all my classes so much is that it makes it even harder for me to narrow them down, and find out what major I want. So far I’m sticking with environmental sciences and earth sciences, but I am really tempted to explore other areas in the social sciences. But people have told me that college is the time to explore, I still have two years before declaring my major, so I’ll try not to stress about not knowing exactly what I want, and just continue to enjoy my classes. I just got done with my first set of midterms, and I did well on them. I’m very glad, but soon it’s time for finals, so there’s a lot of studying to do. But as I mentioned earlier there is just two more weeks, and this quarter will be over, so I get to go home and spend time with my family (can’t wait!). Overall college has been great, and I am happy to share with you guys what has been going on. I’m looking forward to hearing about the other folks that have started college, and hope I have some good stories to tell next time I write. Thanks!

Amanda Wolffenbuttel