My Year in the Vandy Bubble

I finished my last final on Tuesday. I sent a snapchat out with the caption of “Yay, summer!”  I got 3 snapchats back with lyrics to “In Summer” from the movie Frozen. It was so great.  After my final, I ate lunch with Allie and went for one last run.  I went 3.2 miles (which is the furthest I have run in a month) on one of my favorite routes and I didn’t have any knee pain. Taking a month off from running certainly helped.  I cannot imagine a better way to celebrate the end of finals and the beginning of summer.

 

Finish line of my final run as a freshman 

Once I got back, I showered, hung out with Allie for a bit, and ate dinner with Allie and Catey. Then, I packed. Logically, I would have started packing at the end of last week since I didn’t have anything else to do. I’m not sure why I didn’t, probably denial. So instead, I packed everything on Tuesday night.  I am not sure why packing was so hard. It was either because I just have too much stuff, because my mom wasn’t there to help, or because I just really did not want to leave school.  I think it was probably a combination of it all.

Yesterday morning, Allie and I had one final breakfast at this place called Pancake Pantry. It’s a cute little Nashville restaurant that is super popular. Normally, on the weekends, the line to get a table wraps around the building.  I had Sugar and Spice Pancakes with applesauce. It was delicious!

After that, I said some more “see ya laters” (I don’t like to say goodbye) and then my parents got to Nashville.  We packed up the car and made our way home to good ‘ol St. Louis.

Welcome home! 

I saw a quote by F. Scott Fitzgerald the other day.  It says, “It’s a funny thing coming home. Nothing changes. Everything looks the same, feels the same, even smells the same. You realize what’s changed is you.”  Looking back at my year, I know that I have changed. I have seen myself grow and turn into a person that I am proud to be.

I thought that maybe I would share a list of the things I learned in college.

• Free food and free t-shirts are totally worth the trip.
• You aren’t supposed to know what you want to do for the rest of your life.
• Just when you think you’ve figured out what you want to do for the rest of your life, it will probably change.
• It may change again.
• Your friends in college become your family very quickly. You will laugh with them, cry with them, fight with them, get annoyed with them, and lean on them. But, hey, that’s how you know they are family, right?
• It is okay to call your parents and to call them often.
• The nights you will remember the most are not the nights that you spend doing homework.
• You should probably go to class and do your work. 
• It is good to take a break and act on a whim sometimes.
• Keeping in touch with friends from home is hard. Do it anyways.
• Don’t get behind on your reading. It comes back to bite you in the butt come finals time.
• Ordering pizza at all hours of the night is completely acceptable. 
• Naps are good.
• Your professors are actually kind of cool.
• People change.
• Make mistakes.

My freshman year went by in a whirlwind.  There are times when I probably should not have reacted so quickly and other times that I should have changed my questions and answers.  There are people from classes that I should have spent more time talking to and a couple of cupcakes and cookies that just did not need to be eaten. But, looking back, I wouldn’t change a thing.

I never imagined that I would ever meet such incredible people.  I have found some hilarious, weird, caring, and wonderful people to surround myself with. I cannot imagine what college would be like without them. They have taught me a lot about life and about myself. My dad always says that the friends I make in college will be the friends I keep for the rest of my life. I really hope he is right.

Leaving Vanderbilt for the summer was incredibly difficult. But, I think that it is okay that it was hard for me to leave. It means that somehow over these past 9 months, I have created a home at Vanderbilt and in Nashville. It means that even though a special part of me will always be in St. Louis, my heart is in Tennessee for now. I was talking to my sister about this, and she explained it perfectly: Not wanting to leave school to come home does not make me a bad person. It means that I am so incredibly lucky to find a place that makes me so happy and lets me do what I want. Going to Vanderbilt is one of the most special, honorable, and remarkable experiences I have ever had. I am so grateful.

Anchor down, y’all.