"How did it get so late so soon? It's night before it's afternoon. December is here before it's June. My goodness how the time has flewn. How did it get so late so soon?'
- Dr. Seuss
This quote was given to me by a friend, one of the few great people who I've recently met here at college. As Thanksgiving recess approached, I was in a state of bewilderment over how hastily my first semester here at UB went by. I still feel like I haven't rightly fitted here, yet I find myself in friendships that I feel will last longer than the ones I formed during my four years in high school.
After first stepping onto campus, I thought this could be the biggest mistake of my life. How could I get college to shrink to my size? At orientation we were told there was nothing to fear and we freshmen will become in sync and comfortable with the large size of the university. But one of the key things that they told us was to join something, whether it is one of the bigger clubs or a club of just 10. The OA's stressed the importance of involvement. Now looking back I can truly appreciate them warning us freshmen to not be the student that is just here for academics alone.
I tend to get nostalgic and recently a friend got one of those silly surveys for people who grew up in the '80s. As my friend went through the questions all I could think of was how fast the time had gone. I could still remember waking up on Saturdays to watch "He-Man" and the rest of the Saturday morning cartoons. I remember playing with Barbies, and getting Babysitters Club books in the mail. For some strange reason those days seem so distant in the past.
Looking back I can remember how I would think that college was so far away and that Judgment Day would come before I actually went to college. Even in my senior year I still felt college was just a far-flung idea. I went through the motions of preparing for college. I filled out the financial aid forms. I asked for recommendations by my teachers, I filled out the college applications and mailed them out. But I still never felt as though my sheltered life would soon be shaken.
I had no reason to think that, because I still didn't see myself going to college. But all that changed when I received my acceptance letter here and then it hit me: I'll be going to college in September. From there my senior year went as a blur and when everything came back into focus I was in an ugly yellow gown on the stage shaking the principal's hand.
I had graduated.
The first few nights here I thought this place would be nothing but a free-for-all circus. People got ridiculously drunk, people slept through classes and there was no peace of mind. But somehow, certain people rose above the muck, and the free-for-all crowd seemed to dwindle or maybe I just learned how to ignore them. I've been able to find my niche and I have made UB my own, much faster than I thought I would have been able to. But now that I'm enjoying college life here I fear that it will fly by in a blink of an eye. I'll be 45 wondering where has all the time gone.
But I'll leave that worry for another day.
